IRLF 


iaanREJEwa 

^-iiis 


GIFT  OF 
?rof  .    E.J.wicks  or: 

MAIN 


FOR 

YOUNG  AND  OLD. 


THE 

CULTIVATION  OF  GARDEN  VEGETABLES 
IN  THE  FARM  GARDEN. 


BY 

JOSEPH   HARRIS,    M.S., 

AUTHOR  OF  "WALKS  AND  TALKS  ON  THE  FARM,"  "HARRIS  ON  THE  PIG, 
"TALKS  ON  MANURES,"  ETC. 


ILLUSTRATED. 


NEW   YORK: 

ORANGE    JUDD    COMPANY, 

751    BROADWAY. 

1883. 


* 


..««,•  .«*  ^.  **t  t    :  A  ***: 
.*•.  t  :»•  t  v«  «  •  *t  :    *  tfc<fc.  »«« 


C; 
V 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1882,  by  the 
ORANGE   JUDD    COMPANY, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  ol  Congress,  at  Washington. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Introduction 7 

An  Old  and  a  New  Garden 8 

Gardening  for  Boys 9 

How  to  Begin 10 

Preparing  the  Soil : 12 

Killing  the  Weeds 13 

About  High   Farming 15 

Competition  in  Crops 17 

The  Manure  Question 19 

The  Implements  Needed • 21 

Starting  Plants  in  the  House,  or  in  the  Hot-bed 22 

Making  the  Hot-bed 25 

Cold  Frames , 26 

Insects 26 

The  Use  of  Poisons 27 

The  Care  of  Poisons 30 

The  Cultivation  of  Vegetables  in  the  Farm-garden 31 

The  Cultivation  of  Flowers 150 


PREFACE. 


I  should  like  to  see  more  seed-growers  in  the  United 
States,  and  I  hope  some  of  my  young  friends  will  devote 
themselves  to  this  industry.  There  are  more  seeds  sown 
in  America,  in  proportion  to  population,  than  in  any 
other  country.  European  seedsmen,  notwithstanding  a 
duty  of  twenty  per  cent. ,  find  the  United  States  one  of 
the  best  markets  in  the  world. 

It  seems  to  be  a  fact,  that  many  seeds,  when  grown 
here,  produce  much  better  crops  than  when  grown  in 
Europe.  Market  gardeners  give  a  decided  preference  to 
American-grown  seeds.  American -grown  cabbage  seeds, 
for  instance,  find  a  ready  sale  at  double  the  price  of  im- 
ported seed. 

Cauliflower  seed  has  hitherto  rarely  been  grown  in 
this  country  successfully,  but  I  understand  that  Cali- 
fornia is  now  growing  it  of  excellent  quality.  Dakota 
is  growing  cabbage  seed,  and  I  feel  confident  that  some- 
where on  this  broad  Continent,  with  its  great  diversity 
of  soil  and  climate,  there  is  not  a  seed  which  the  Ameri- 
can gardener  wants,  that  will  not  be  grown  to  perfection. 
The  great  point  is  to  get  what  seed-growers  call  "  stock 
seed,"  to  start  with.  As  a  rule,  you  can  not  buy  it. 
You  must  grow  it  yourself.  Take  Cucumber  seed,  for 
example.  Enormous  quantities  of  Cucumber  seed  are 
grown  and  sold  in  America,  and  yet  it  is  exceedingly 
difficult  to  get  good  seed,  pure,  and  true  to  name.  And 
(5) 


6  PREFACE. 

so  of  Watermelon  seed.  A  gentleman  in  Barnwell,  S. 
0.,  wrote  me  a  few  days  ago  for  Watermelon  seed,  for 
his  own  use,  sufficient  to  plant  one  hundred  and  fifty 
acres.  Such  a  man  could  afford  to  pay  a  high  price  for 
seed,  that  was  known  to  he  good,  rather  than  to  accept 
common  seed  as  a  gift.  Seedsmen,  as  a  rule,  are  hon- 
orable men,  and  would  cheerfully  pay  good  prices  to  a 
careful  seed-grower,  whose  seeds  always  proved  to  be  as 
represented. 

I  would  particularly  urge  some  of  my  young  friends 
to  turn  their  attention  to  seed-growing.  They  should 
make  it  the  business  of  their  lives,  and  the  earlier  they 
commence,  the  better.  They  need  the  best  of  education, 
the  highest  moral  character,  a  good  stock  of  patience 
and  common  sense,  the  best  of  land,  and  above  all,  a 
hopeful  disposition,  that  will  enable  them  to  persevere 
amid  manifold  discouragements.  I  know  of  no  industry 
which  promises  greater  success.  None  of  us,  however, 
wish  to  see  American  Horticulture  degenerate  into  a 
money-making  business.  It  is  preeminently  worthy  of 
attention  for  its  refining  and  ennobling  influence.  I 
have  often  thought  of  the  words  of  Hooker,  written 
more  than  three  hundred  years  ago:  "  The  beauty  of  trees 
when  we  behold  them,  delighteth  the  eye."  The  beauty 
of  flowers  elevates  the  taste,  and  their  cultivation  gives 
health  and  pleasure.  J.  H. 


GARDENING   FOR    YOUNG   AND   OLD, 


INTRODUCTION. 

I  first  thought  of  calling  this  book  "  Gardening  for 
Young  Folks,"  but  I  found  that  the  young  folks  of  my 
intimate  acquaintance,  and  who  are  as  much  interested  in 
the  book  as  any  one  else  is  likely  to  be,  very  decidedly 
objected  to  the  title.  And  it  was  at  their  suggestion  that 
I  decided  to  call  it  "  Gardening  for  Young  and  Old  " — 
with  a  mental  reservation  that  it  should  be  principally 
for  the  Young  Folks. 

The  fact  is,  the  children  are  right.  It  is  not  "Gar- 
dening for  Young  Folks  "  alone  that  is  required.  The 
young  would  do  little  without  the  advice  and  sympathy 
and  encouragement  of  their  fathers  and  mothers,  or 
older  friends.  And  some  old  folks  I  know  are  almost 
as  bad,  or  worse.  They  can  do  little  or  nothing  in  the 
garden  unless  they  have  the  young  people  to  help  them. 
The  fact  is,  the  Old  were  made  for  the  Young,  and  the 
Young  were  made  for  the  Old. 

I  know  an  old  farmer  who  has  given  up  the  active 
management  of  his  farm,  and  who  devotes  his  whole  time 
to  the  garden.  It  is  a  small  garden,  but  it  is  a  model  of 
neatness  and  thorough  cultivation.  Not  a  weed,  or  a 
stone,  or  a  stick,  is  to  be  found  in  it ;  he  has  the  earliest 
of  vegetables  and  the  sweetest  of  flowers.  But  there  is 
not  enough  to  it,  his  garden  is  simply  a  plaything,  but 
it  has  done  one  good  thing.  One  of  his  grandchildren, 
a  bright  active  boy,  has  a  decided  taste  for  gardening. 


8  GAllSENING   FOR   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

.  He  .son*etiine&  \vistts  me  and  takes  a  deep  interest  in  all 
that  is  going  on.  He  is  willing  to  learn,  is  not  afraid  of 
work,  and  he  is  ready  to  adopt  a  new  plan.  If  his  father 
would  give  him  the  chance,  and  the  grandfather  aid 
him  with  his  experience  (as  he  will),  this  young  man 
will  soon  have  a  garden  that  is  a  garden  ;  in  fact,  he  has 
already  commenced.  He  has  enclosed  about  an  acre  of 
land  near  the  barn-yard,  and  adjoining  the  old  garden. 
It  may  not  be  big  enough,  but  it  will  do  to  commence 
with.  This  young  man  has  been  frequently  in  my  mind 
while  writing  this  book. 

AN   OLD   AND  A  NEW   GARDEN. 

I  want  to  introduce  a  new  system  of  gardening.  I  do 
not  wish  to  do  away  with  the  old  gardens,  but  I  would 
see  new  ones  on  every  farm.  Moreover,  I  want  to  see  them 
big  enough  to  admit  of  the  use  of  the  plow,  the  harrow, 
the  roller,  and  above  all,  of  the  horse-hoe,  for  cultivating 
between  the  rows  of  growing  plants.  I  have  myself  just 
such  a  garden,  and  I  have  also  an  old-fashioned  garden, 
full  of  trees,  and  walks,  and  bushes,  and — weeds.  There 
are  two  or  three  beds  of  asparagus  that  do  not  amount  to 
much.  In  one  corner  there  is  a'  mass  of  horse-radish, 
and  along  the  fence  there  is  a  row  of  currant  bushes. 
There  was  formerly  a  score  or  more  of  English  goose- 
berries, but  the  mildew  and  the  Saw-fly  have  been  too 
much  for  them.  We  have  grapevines  growing  vigor- 
ously, and  here  and  there  a  bed  of  beautiful  roses.  There 
are  beds  of  thyme,  sage,  rosemary,  parsley,  and  rhu- 
barb. The  latter  produces  an.  abundance  of  seed,  but 
only  a  few  somewhat  stringy  stalks.  This  bed  of  rhu- 
barb stands  right  across  a  strip  of  land  where,  but  for  it, 
I  could  use  a  cultivator  to  great  advantage.  We  have 
peach  trees,  cherry  trees,  pear  trees,  raspberries,  black- 
berries, and  strawberry  beds.  In  short,  it  is  a  large,  old- 


INTRODUCTION.  9 

fashioned  garden.  Ifc  is  no  worse  than  many  others,  and 
better  than  some  gardens.  Trees  that  I  planted  with  my 
own  hands  are  now  fifty  feet  high.  Rows  of  dwarf  apple 
trees,  on  each  side  of  a  twenty-foot  walk,  in  spite  of  all 
the  pruning  we  could  give  them,  interlock  their  branches. 
I  would  not  destroy  the  old  garden.  It  has  been  a  source 
of  much  pleasure,  and  it  is  still  not  without  its  attractive 
features.  But  there  is  not  a  crop  in  it  that  does  not  cost 
more  than  it  is  worth.  In  spite  of  all  the  hoeing  we  can 
give  it,  by  the  time  we  are  through  with  the  harvest  the 
garden  is  full  of  weeds, 

I  have  another  garden,  several  acres  in  extent,  with 
only  a  fence  between  it  and  the  old  garden,  to  which  it 
presents  a  decided  contrast.  I  will  not  boast,  but  I  think 
there  are  more  weeds  on  a  square  rod  in  many  parts  of 
the  old  garden  than  could  be  found  on  a  whole  acre  of 
the  new.  This  is  simply  because  we  have  room  enough 
for  all  the  modern  tools  for  preparing  the  land,  drilling 
in  the  seed,  and  cultivating  the  crops.-  Wherever  the 
plow  and  the  cultivator  can  be  used,  we  get  good  crops, 
and  clean  land,  and  if  not,  not. 

GARDENING   FOB   BOYS. 

I  want  to  interest  the  boys  in  gardening.  I  would  like 
to  have  them  start  with  new  land  and  new  methods. 
Select  the  best  piece  of  land  you  have.  I  do  not  care 
how  big  it  is.  Three  or  four  acres  is  none  too  much. 
The  amount  of  work  required  will  depend  on  the  kind 
of  crops  to  be  raised ;  you  can  raise  an  acre  of  sweet 
corn,  or  an  acre  of  early  potatoes,  or  an  acre  of  late 
cabbages,  with  half  the  labor  required  to  raise  an  acre  of 
onions.  Let  the  garden  be  big  enough,  and  if  you  fear 
you  can  not  command  sufficient  labor  to  grow  the  more 
expensive  crops,  then  devote  the  larger  portion  of  the 
ground  to  those  crops  which  can  be  kept  clean  almost  en- 


10  GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

tirely  by  the  use  of  the  cultivator,  and  aim  to  have  some 
of  the  crops  come  in  early,  and  some  to  mature  late,  so 
that  all  the  work  of  gathering  the  crops  will  not  have  to 
be  done  at  one  time. 

Even  if  you  are  sure  of  the  labor,  it  is  a  good  plan  at 
first  to  grow  crops  with  which  you  are  most  familiar,  and 
which  do  not  require  excessively  rich  land.  It  takes 
some  years  to  get  land  in  the  very  best  condition  for 
many  of  our  best  garden  crops.  Even  such  a  common 
crop  as  early  cabbages  will  do  better  on  land  that  has 
been  heavily  manured  two  or  three  years,  and  occupied 
each  year  with  cabbages,  than  can  be  grown  on  new 
land,  no  matter  how  heavily  it  may  be  manured.  The 
same  is  true  of  onions;  old  onion  land,  provided  it  is 
well  manured  every  year,  is  proverbially  better  for  this 
crop  than  new  land. 

I  want  the  boys  to  engage  in  gardening,  because  they 
are  young  and  can  afford  to  wait,  but  more  especially  be- 
cause they  will  be  more  likely  to  adopt  new  processes, 
and  will  be  willing  to  bestow  the  necessary  care  and 
labor  in  preparing  the  land.  I  can  not  insist  too  much 
on  the  importance  of  this  matter,  not  only  at  first,  but 
in  the  years  to  come. 

HOW  TO  BEGIN. 

If  the  land  selected  for  a  garden  is  not  naturally  well, 
drained,  it  must  be  under-drained.  Without  this,  suc- 
cess is  impossible.  Fall  plowing  is  of  great  importance, 
and  I  do  not  mean  by  this  simply  turning  over  the  soil 
with  a  plow,  and  letting  the  furrows  lie  undisturbed  un- 
til spring.  If  it  is  sod-land,  it  should  be  plowed  deep 
and  well,  as  early  as  possible,  and  the  surface  afterwards 
harrowed  and  rolled,  cultivated  and  again  rolled,  and 
harrowed  again,  until  there  are  four  or  five  inches  of  loose 
mellow  soil.  If  the  plowing  was  done  so  early  that  the 


INTRODUCTION.  11 

sod  is  so  rotted  that  it  can  be  cross-plowed  before  winter 
sets  in,  all  the  better.  It  can  not  be  plowed  too  often  in 
the  fall.  All  stones  and  rubbish  must  be  removed. 

ABOUT  MANURES. 

The  application  of  manure  is  no  doubt  a  very  impor- 
tant matter,  but  in  many  cases  a  still  more  important 
one  is,  how  to  get  the  manure.  "We  never  have  all  we 
could  use  to  advantage.  Unless  we  buy  manure,  we 
must  rob  some  other  part  of  the  farm  in  order  to  enrich 
the  garden.  Mos!;  farmers  will  be  startled  at  this  propo- 
sition. In  many  cases,  however,  it  is  the  true  plan.  A 
farmer  with  a  hundred  acres  of  land  could  use  all  the 
manure  he  makes  on  a  ten-acre  field  devoted  to  garden 
crops.  He  could  use  phosphates  on  the  farm,  and  ma- 
nure and  phosphates  in  the  garden.  On  the  farm  he 
could  enrich  his  land  by  summer-fallowing  and  plowing 
under  green  crops.  The  more  stock  he  keeps,  and  the 
more  grass,  corn,  oats,  peas,  mustard,  rape,  and  millet 
he  grows  and  consumes  on  the  farm,  the  more  manure 
he  will  make.  In  many  cases  he  could  with  advantage 
buy  food  to  feed  his  stock. 

My  own  plan  is,  to  rot  the  manure  by  making  it  into 
heaps  five  feet  wide  and  about  five  feet  high,  and  of  any 
desired  length.  It  is  piled  in  the  barn-yard  as  fast  as  it 
is  made.  In  the  winter  we  draw  these  piles  into  the  field 
where  the  manure  is  to  be  used,  and  make  it  into  other 
piles  five  feet  wide  and  five  feet  high,  as  before,  being 
careful  to  carry  the  heaps  up  straight  and  square,  so  that 
the  top  shall  be  as  wide  as  the  bottom.  If  you  do  not 
insist  on  this  being  done,  the  teamsters  will  make  the 
heap  like  the  roof  of  a  house,  and  before  spring  the  ma- 
nure will  be  frozen  solid.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  heap 
is  carefully  made,  the  manure  will  decompose  and  keep 
warm,  and  be  in  splendid  condition  for  use  early  in  the 
spring. 


12  GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG   ANJ)   OLD. 

PREPARING  THE  SOIL. 

In  preparing  land  for  a  garden,  as  before  said,  we  can 
not  plow  ib  too  much  in  the  autumn.  If  the  land  can 
not  be  got  into  good  condition  in  the  fall,  it  certainly  can 
not  be  done  in  the  spring.  This  is  true  not  only  of  new 
land,  but  of  old  garden  land.  Said  an  old  gardener  and 
seed-grower  tome  the  other  day:  "The  longer  I  live, 
the  more  am  I  convinced  of  the  importance  of  fall  plow- 
ing. It  makes  the  land  cleaner,  and  you  are  ready  to 
commence  work  much  earlier  in  the  spring." 

I  know  a  farmer  who  wished  to  make  a  large  field- 
garden,  who  selected  a  good  piece  of  land,  and  plowed  it 
up  in  the  spring  and  sowed  it  to  buckwheat,  and  when 
the  crop  was  in  flower,  he  plowed  it  under  and  seeded  it 
again  to  buckwheat.  He  had  an  immense  crop,  but  he 
managed  with  a  good  plow  and  chain  to  turn  it  under. 
He  then,  in  August,  or  the  first  of  September,  sowed  the 
land  to  rye,  and  the  next  spring,  about  the  middle  of 
May,  he  plowed  under  the  rye.  The  land  was  wonder- 
fully mellow  and  full  of  vegetable  matter,  and  he  had  a 
grand  piece  of  land  on  which  to  commence  gardening 
operations.  By  the  aid  of  a  little  phosphate  it  is  easy 
to  grow  good  sweet  corn,  melons,  cucumbers,  beets,  and 
late  cabbages  on  such  land. 

Gardeners  who  live  near  a  city  where  land  is  high, 
will  think  they  can  not  afford  to  let  their  land  lie  idle. 
They  will  prefer  to  buy  manure  rather  than  plow  under 
green  crops.  But  in  the  country,  where  we  wish  to  start 
a  field-garden,  and  can  not  buy  manure,  there  can  be  lit- 
tle doubt  but  that  we  can  very  cheaply  enrich  the  land 
by  plowing  under  such  crops  as  buckwheat,  white  mus- 
tard, .and  rye.  I  do  not  say  that  we  can  make  land  very 
rich  in  this  way,  but  we  can  fill  it  full  of  vegetable 
mould,  and  at  the  same  time  make  the  soil  clean  and 
mellow.  The  system  of  gardening  I  wish  to  advocate  in 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

the  country  is  based  on  the  idea  of  having  a  large  gar- 
den, only  a  part  of  which  is  necessarily  occupied  by 
crops  which  require  a  maximum  amount  of  manure.  I 
want  the  garden  so  large  from  the  start,  that  the  whole 
of  it  may  be  very  thoroughly  plowed  and  subdued  and 
brought  into  good  shape,  and  be  ready  at  any  time  to  re- 
ceive such  garden  crops  as  we  may  wish  to  grow. 

It  will  do  a  farmer  good — it  will  certainly  do  his  boys 
good — to  have  such  a  piece  of  land  or  field,  where  the 
very  best  system  of  cultivation  is  adopted.  Very  few 
farmers  know  what  really  good  cultivation  means.  I  am 
myself  a  farmer,  and  the  son  and  grandson  and  great- 
grandson  of  a  farmer,  and  mean  no  disrespect  to  farmers 
when  I  say  that  most  of  us  have  very  little  idea  of  how- 
much  land  can  be  improved  by  thorough  cultivation  and 
high  manuring. 

KILLING  THE  WEEDS. 

The  first  year  I  came  upon  the  farm  where  I  now  live, 
there  was  a  field  of  ten  acres  of  wheat.  The  field  was 
seeded  to  clover,  but  the  clover  was  killed  out,  and  the 
wheat  stubble  was  one  mass  of  Quack-grass.  I  had  had 
considerable  experience  with  this  under-ground  weed, 
and  I  was  determined  to  kill  it,  and  I  did  kill  it.  The 
field  to-day  is  occupied  with  garden  crops,  and  there  is 
not  a  spear  of  Quack  in  it.  It  so  happened  that  at  one 
of  the  meetings  of  our  Farmers'  Club,  the  question  un- 
der discussion  was,  How  to  kill  Quack-grass?  It  was 
stated  that  land  near  Rochester,  worth  five  hundred  dol- 
lars an  acre,  was  so  overrun  with  Quack  as  to  be  almost 
worthless  for  cultivation,  and  some  of  the  speakers 
thought  it  would  have  to  be  abandoned.  I  was  innocent 
enough  to  get  up  and  tell  the  method  I  had  just  used  for 
killing  Quack  on  my  own  farm.  "  As  soon  as  the  wheat 
crop  was  off,"  I  said,  "  I  plowed  the  land,  and  then  har- 
rowed it,  and  rolled  it  and  harrowed  it  again  until  it 


14  GARDENING  FOR  YOUNG  AND  OLD. 

presented  quite  a  respectable  appearance  on  the  surface. 
The  Quack,  after  the  autumn  rains,  began  to  grow,  and 
I  cross-plowed  the  field  with  a  steel  plow.  The  grass  was 
so  thick  and  matted  that  the  plow  did  not  make  very 
good  work,  but  as  the  weather  still  continued  dry,  we 
ivere  able  to  work  the  surface  into  good  shape  by  the 
use  of  a  thirty-two  toothed  harrow,  which  was  the  only 
kind  we  then  had.  (A  Smoothing  Harrow,  with  its 
seventy-two  slanting  teeth,  would  have  made  far  bet- 
ter work,  with  half  the  labor.)  We  kept  harrowing  it 
and  cultivating  it  as  opportunity  offered,  and  about  the 
last  of  November  we  plowed  the  land  again,  and  left  it 
rough  for  the  winter." 

As  I  talked,  it  was  amusing  to  watch  the  expression  on 
the  faces  of  the  farmers  present.  They  did  not  seem  to 
know  whether  to  laugh  or  sneer,  but  I  imagine  they 
thought  it  would  be  better  to  let  the  Quack  retain  pos- 
session of  the  land,  rather  than  to  spend  so  much  time 
in  plowing  and  working  it.  And  I  then  said:  "In  the 
following  spring  we  plowed  the  field  again,  and  then 
harrowed  and  cultivated  and  harrowed  and  rolled  until 
the  land  was  completely  covered  with  the  dry  roots  of 
Quack,  which  we  raked  together  in  windrows  and  heaps, 
and  then  set  fire  to  them.  Afterwards  we  plowed  the  land 
once  more,  harrowed  and  rolled  it,  and  drilled  it  in  with 
beans."  At  this  point  even  the  intelligent  Secretary  of 
the  Club,  and  an  able  agricultural  writer,  could  not  re- 
strain a  look  of  amazement,  that  any  man  could  be  so 
destitute  of  all  sense  of  propriety  as  to  recommend  any 
such  a  system.  But  after  twenty  years'  experience,  I  am 
prepared  to  say  that  the  plan  was  a  good  one.  I  had  a 
noble  crop  of  beans  that  summer,  and  a  good  crop  of 
wheat  afterwards.  From  that  day  to  this  the  field  has 
been  the  best  on  the  farm,  and  will  pay  a  higher  interest 
on  five  hundred  dollars  an  acre  than  it  would  have  paid 
at  that  time  on  fifty  dollars. 


IXTEODUCTIOK.  15 

I  do  not  say  that  the  whole  of  this  result  has  been 
brought  about  by  this  extraordinary  number  of  plo  wings 
used  to  kill  the  Quack,  but  I  feel  quite  certain  that  this 
was  the  starting  point  and  basis  of  the  improvement. 
One  boy  may  spend  his  winter  evenings  with  idle  com- 
panions, and  another  at  home  reading  a  few  good  books. 
The  one  is  never  heard  of  afterwards,  the  other  is  the 
President  of  a  University.  I  do  not  say  that  the  books 
he  read  that  winter  evening  made  him  the  useful  and 
distinguished  man  he  is,  but  it  was  the  first  of  a  series 
of  steps  which  led  to  honor  and  renown. 

I  have  spent  a  great  deal  of  labor  on  this  piece  of  land, 
but  it  has  paid  for  itself  from  the  start;  and  what  I  have 
done  myself,  I  urge  others  to  do,  even  though  the  wise 
men  may  shake  their  heads. 

ABOUT  HIGH   FARMING. 

We  have  now  far  better  tools  for  cultivating  land  than 
formerly.  In  fact,  our  tools  are  better  than  our  agricul- 
ture. And  we  may  rest  assured  that  so  soon  as  we  adopt 
improved  methods  of  farming  and  gardening,  our  inven- 
tors and  manufacturers  will  furnish  all  the  tools,  imple- 
ments and  machines  necessary  to  do  the  work. 

But  will  it  pay  to  adopt  high  farming  ?  That  depends 
on  what  we  mean  by  high  farming.  High  farming,  if 
we  confine  ourselves  to  the  production  of  hay,  Indian 
corn,  wheat,  oats,  and  other  ordinary  farm  crops,  will 
not  pay  in  this  country.  And  Sir  John  Bennett  Lawes 
once  wrote  a  paper  or  gave  a  lecture  before  a  Farmer's 
Club  in  Scotland,  in  which  he  demonstrated  that  high 
farming  was  no  remedy  for  the  low  prices  of  agricultural 
products  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  I  think,  how- 
ever, he  would  admit  that  thorough  cultivation  and 
heavy  manuring  could  be  profitably  used  for  the  produc- 
tion of  what  we  usually  term  garden  products. 

Some   years   ago  I  was   at  an  agricultural  dinner  in 


16  GARDENING   FOE  YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

England,  when  the  late  J.  J.  Mechi,  who  had  for  many 
years  recommended  high  farming,  stated  that,  notwith- 
standing the  low  price  of  agricultural  products,  he  was 
at  that  time  picking  several  acres  of  peas  for  the  Lon- 
don market,  and  he  found  the  crop  a  very  profitable  one. 
Dr.  Gilbert,  one  of  the  ablest  agricultural  chemists  of 
the  world,  called  out:  "But,  Mr.  Mechi,  this  is  not 
farming,  it  is  market  gardening."  Mr.  Mechi,  though 
always  ready,  made  no  reply.  He  seemed  to  think  that 
the  argument  was  unanswerable,  and  he  let  the  case  go 
by  default.  But  not  so  the  coming  generation  of  farm 
boys — and  I  hope  of  English  boys  also.  What  does  it 
matter  whether  you  harvest  your  peas  dry  or  pick  them 
green  ?  What  does  ifc  matter  whether  you  raise  cab- 
bages, corn  or  carrots,  and  other  roots,  to  be  fed  out  on 
the  farm  to  animals,  or  to  be  sold  in  market  to  our  fellow 
citizens,  who  can  not  grow  them  for  themselves  ? 

The  advocates  of  high  farming  make  a  mistake.  Nei- 
ther England  nor  New  England  will  ever  raise  all  the 
wheat  required  by  its  population.  Even  the  great  State 
of  New  York,  I  hope,  will  not  long  continue  to  raise  on 
its  own  soil  all  the  wheat  it  annually  consumes.  Com- 
merce is  the  feature  of  the  age,  and  wheat  is  carried  ten 
thousand  miles  to  market.  Cheap  bread  is  what  the 
world  wants,  and  what  the  world  wants,  the  world  will 
get.  Cheap  wheat  can  never  be  furnished  by  high  farm- 
ing. It  must  and  will  be  grown  largely  on  land  manured 
only  by  nature.  There  may  be  places  in  which  wheat 
can  be  profitably  grown,  where  many  of  the  constituents 
of  the  plant  must  be  applied  to  the  soil,  just  as  there  are 
places  where  we  can  profitably  use  chemical  processes  for 
the  production  of  ice.  As  a  rule,  however,  nature  and 
commerce  will  furnish  ice  cheaper  than  even  modern 
science  can  manufacture  it.  We  shall  have  two  kinds  of 
farming.  One  will  consist  largely  in  the  production  of 
wheat,  corn,  oats,  barley,  cotton,  sugar  and  rice.  The 


INTRODUCTION.  17 

other,  while  it  will  not  entirely  neglect  these  great  pro- 
ducts, will  aim  to  produce  crops  which  can  not  be  kept 
from  year  to  year,  or  ordinarily  be  transported  long 
distances. 

The  one  system  of  farming  will  be  carried  on  with  lit- 
tle labor,  and  little  or  no  manure.  And  what  manure  is 
used  will  be  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  the  plant  to  ab- 
stract as  much  food  as  possible  from  the  soil.  In  other 
words,  our  wheat  growers  may  use  superphosphate,  be.- 
cause  the  application  of  phosphoric  acid  may  enable  the 
wheat  plant  to  get  a  larger  quantity  of  potash,  nitrogen, 
and  other  constituents  of  plant  food  from  the  soil,  and 
thus  to  produce  larger  crops.  This  is  the  very  reverse  of 
high  farming,  though  it  is  often  very  profitable  farming. 
The  other  system  of  farming  is  the  one  which  I  want  our 
young  men  to  adopt.  The  change  will  be  gradual,  but 
it  will  surely  come.  It  will  be  adopted  in  England,  and 
also  here.  It  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  the  soil  of  Eng- 
land, or  of  the  New  England  or  Middle  States,  can  not 
be  profitably  cultivated,  owing  to  the  low  prices  at  which 
the  cheap  land  of  the  West  and  Northwest,  aided  by 
cheap  transportation,  can  furnish  our  people,  and  the 
people  of  New  England,  with  bread.  Let  the  bread 
come,  and  let  us  provide  good  Jersey  butter  to  eat  with 
it.  The  world  as  a  world  spends  all  it  can  get,  and  the 
less  it  spends  for  bread  the  more  it  can  pay  for  butter 
and  bonnets,  and  the  bonnet-makers  will  buy  our  fruit 
and  vegetables. 

COMPETITION  IN  CROPS. 

One  thing  is  certain,  we  can  never  get  high  average 
prices  for  wheat,  or  for  any  other  product  which  can  be 
grown  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  which  will  keep 
from  year  to  year.  The  farmers  of  America  will  never 
realize  extravagant  profits  from  any  crop,  the  value  of 
which  is  determined  by  the  price  it  will  bring  in  Eng- 


18  GARDENING   FOE   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

land.  Any  crop  which  is  entirely  consumed  at  home 
will  be  likely  to  bring  a  fair  price,  and  very  frequently 
the  price  will  be  determined  by  the  cost  at  which  the 
article  can  be  brought  to  our  markets  from  Europe. 
This  was  so  last  year  in  the  case  of  potatoes  and  cabbages. 
Suppose  some  of  my  young  friends  had  had  a  ten-acre 
field-garden  in  high  condition,  filled  with  potatoes,  cab- 
bages, celery  and  cauliflowers,  not  to  mention  other  gar- 
den crops.  In  spite  of  the  drouth  and  the  Colorado- 
beetle,  such  a  field-garden,  prepared,  enriched  and  culti- 
vated, as  I  have  recommended,  would  have  produced 
three  hundred  bushels  of  potatoes  per  acre.  The  ex- 
pense of  planting,  cultivating,  hoeing  and  digging  of 
these  would  not  exceed  thirty  dollars  per  acre,  while  it 
would  have  been  an  easy  matter  to  have  sold  the  crop 
for  from  three  hundred  to  four  hundred  dollars  per  acre. 
So  with  cabbages.  It  would  not  have  been  a  difficult  mat- 
ter to  grow  five  thousand  good  heads  of  cabbage  per  acre, 
which  could  readily  have  been  sold  at  ten  cents  per  head. 
The  planting,  cultivating,  harvesting,  bury  ing  for  the  win- 
ter and  marketing  would  not  cost  over  one  cent  per  head, 
thus  affording  a  profit  of  four  hundred  and  fifty  dollars 
per  acre.  This  is  five  per  cent  interest  on  nine  thousand 
dollars  per  acre.  We  can  afford  to  smile  at  those  who 
sneer  at  us  for  plowing  our  land  four  or  five  times  to 
destroy  weeds  and  get  it  into  good  shape  for  starting  a 
good  field-garden.  Celery  and  onions  would  have  afforded 
still  higher  profits.  Even  a  few  acres  of  turnips  would 
have  made  no  slight  addition  to  our  finances.  What  has 
been  will  be.  It  may  be  some  years  before  potatoes  and 
cabbages  are  again  imported  into  the  United  States  from 
Europe.  It  is  not  at  all  flattering  to  our  vanity  that  this 
vast  continent,  with  its  rich  land,  brilliant  sunshine  and 
energetic  people,  should  be  obliged  to  send  to  the  high- 
priced  land  of  Holland  for  its  sauerkraut,  or  to  Scotland 
for  its  potatoes.  But  we  need  not  fear  that  the  products 


INTRODUCTION.  19 

of  our  field -gardens  will  not  command  profitable  prices 
for  years  to  come.  Our  population  is  increasing  faster 
than  we  can  get  these  field-gardens  prepared  for  the  pro- 
duction of  the  choicer  kinds  of  garden  products.  There 
is  scarcely  a  village  in  England  or  America  which  is  sup- 
plied with  all  the  fresh  fruits,  flowers  and  vegetables 
which  the  people  would  take,  if  they  were  furnished  in 
good  condition  and  at  moderate  prices. 

THE  MANURE   QUESTION. 

As  already  said,  the  real  difficulty  in  starting  a  field- 
garden  is  to  get  enough  manure.  We  must  use  all  we 
can  scrape  up  on  the  farm,  and  buy  all  we  can  get  from 
towns  and  cities  and  slaughter-houses,  at  moderate  prices. 
In  addition  to  this  we  must  plow  under  a  few  acres  of 
green  crops,  and  supplement  them  with  liberal  purchases 
of  superphosphate  of  lime  and  other  artificial  fertilizers. 
After  we  get  our  field-garden  fairly  started,  it  will  be  a 
comparatively  easy  matter  to  maintain  and  increase  its 
productiveness.  I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  we  can  ever 
dispense  with  the  use  of  a  large  amount  of  manure.  We 
shall  never  be  able  to  do  so.  We  may  make  it  cheaper 
than  we  do  now,  or  we  may  be  able  to  use  artificial  fer- 
tilizers with  great  advantage  and  economy,  but  the  nature 
of  plants  does  not  change.  Early  cabbages  can  never  be 
grown  early  and  of  fine  quality,  except  on  land  supplying 
in  available  condition  an  abundant  amount  of  plant  food. 
All  we  can  hope  for  is  to  discover  how  this  great  store  of 
plant  food  can  be  turned  to  account  after  we  have  grown 
an  early  crop  of  cabbages.  Our  Experimental  Stations 
will,  sooner  or  later,  give  us  valuable  information  on  this 
point. 

At  present  we  know  that  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to 
make  our  field-garden  soil  excessively  rich.  We  can  not 
adopt  high  farming  in  .the  production  of  corn  and  wheat, 


20  GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

or  oats  and  peas.  Four-fifths  of  our  land  will  be  used  as 
it  is  now,  to  produce  such  crops  as  good  tillage  will  af- 
ford, aided  by  the  use  of  moderate  dressings  of  artificial 
fertilizers.  Wherever  profitable  we  shall  increase  the 
use  of  lime,  ashes  and  plaster,  composted  it  may  be  with 
muck  from  our  swamps. 

There  is  nothing  new  in  all  this,  for  farmers  are  doing 
the  samo  thing  now.  They  make  a  little  manure,  and  they 
apply  it  first  to  one  field  and  then  to  another.  The  change 
I  wish  to  make  is  to  apply  the  manure  to  one  field  only, 
year  after  year.  I  want  to  introduce  the  highest  kind 
of  "high  farming"  on  a  small  scale  and  for  special  crops. 
I  do  not  care  what  the  crops  are.  Even  tobacco  may 
be  grown  in  "this  way,  but  I  do  not  want  to  have  anything 
to  do  with  the  article.  There  are  better  crops  to  grow, 
and  crops  which  require  as  much  skill  and  labor  and  brains, 
and  which  will  yield  larger  profits.  As  a  rule,  the  crops 
which  require  the  most  labor  must  have  the  best  land 
and  the  heaviest  manuring.  This  is  preeminently  so  in 
this  country,  where  labor  is  high  and  ordinary  land  cheap. 
At  first  it  will  be  well  to  devote  the  field-garden  to  crops 
which  require  comparatively  little  labor  and  manure. 
Sweet  corn  is  such  a  crop,  and  so  are  tomatoes,  potatoes, 
beans  and  late  cabbages.  The  latter  crop  requires  good 
rich  land,  but  it  can  be  grown  in  ordinary  seasons,  with 
little  more  than  good  farm  management.  If  you  have 
any  fears  that  the  land  is  not  rich  enough  to  produce  a 
good  crop  of  late  cabbages  of  the  large  varieties,  plant 
such  varieties  as  the  Winningstadt  about  the  middle  of 
July. 

Melons  and  cucumbers  and  squashes  can  be  grown  by 
the  use  of  a  little  manure  in  the  hill,  aided  by  a  table- 
spoonful  of  superphosphate. 

Onions  must  have  rich  land,  and  it  will  be  well  not  to 
go  into  this  crop  too  extensively  the  first  year,  but  I 
would,  by  all  means,  sow  some  in  order  to  get  acquainted 


INTKODUCTION.  21 

with  the  crop.  And  so  of  all  other  crops  you  ultimately 
expect  to  grow.  A  little  experience  will  soon  enable  one 
to  grow  them  successfully. 

THE   IMPLEMENTS   NEEDED. 

The  expense  of  starting  the  field-garden  will  consist  prin- 
cipally in  labor,  manure,  and  seeds.  The  implements  re- 
quired are  found  on  every  well-managed  farm,  with  the 
exception  of  a  very  few. 

We  shall  need  a  good  plow,  harrow,  roller,  cultivator, 
marker,  garden  line,  seed  drill,  rake,  hoe,  transplanting 
dibble, watering  can,  potato  hook,  spade,  and  fork.  These 
are  all  necessary,  but  are  already  on  hand.  Amongst  the 
implements  not  so  common,  but  which,  in  my  own  case,  I 
should  hardly  know  how  to  dispense  with,  are  the  Acme 
Harrow,  a  Smoothing  Harrow,  the  Gang  Plow,  and  a  new 
Revolving  Harrow  and  Smoother,  made  by  an  extensive 
onion  grower  in  Connecticut.  The  latter  is  the  best 
new  implement  I  have  tried  for  many  years.  Like  the 
original  Smoothing  Harrow,  it  is  a  somewhat  crude  affair, 
but  it  contains  the  elements  of  an  exceedingly  useful 
and  valuable  machine.  I  have  had  three  Smoothing 
Harrows,  and  each  one  is  better  than  its  predecessor. 


22  GARDENING   FOR  YOUKG   AND   OLD. 

STARTING  PLANTS  IN  THE  HOUSE  OR 
HOT-BED. 

In  the  absence  of  a  propagating  house,  much  may  be 
done  in  the  way  of  starting  early  plants  in  one's  dwelling 
or  hot-bed.  The  principal  impediment  commonly  experi- 
enced is  in  the  difficulty  of  obtaining,  in  the  spring,  the 
proper  kind  of  soil  or  compost  to  put  in  the  boxes  or  hot- 
bed. Professional  gardeners  prepare  the  soil  with  great 
care  the  previous  year,  but  if  winter  is  about  to  set  in, 
and  you  have  nothing  ready,  excellent  results  may  be  ob- 
tained by  placing  in  the  cellar  a  load  or  two  of  any 
good  light  sandy  loam;  the  lighter  and  richer  the  bet- 
ter. In  the  spring,  before  using  it,  run  it  through  a  sieve, 
so  as  to  remove  all  stones  and  lumps  and  rubbish.  If 
you  have  it,  mix  a  tablespoonful  of  superphosphate  to 
each  half  bushel  of  soil;  then  get  some  peat — moss,  or 
Sphagnum,  such  as  nurserymen  use  for  packing — dry  it 
thoroughly,  and  sift  it  fine,  and  to  each  peck  of  soil  put 
two  or  three  quarts  of  this  fine,  dry  sifted  moss;  mix 
carefully,  and  you  will  have  as  good  a  material  for  start- 
ing fine  seeds  as  I  have  ever  used. 

Leaf-mould  is  a  very  fair  substitute  for  moss.  It 
contains  much  plant  food,  is  light  and  porous,  and  re- 
tains considerable  moisture.  By  leaf-mould,  I  do  not 
mean  muck  from  the  swamp,  but  the  decomposed  leaves 
and  sand  scraped  up  in  the  woods.  Leaf-mould,  like  muck, 
varies  considerably  in  composition  and  value.  The  best  is 
obtained  from  Beech,  Maple  and  Oak  woods.  The  leaf- 
mould  should  be  gathered  the  previous  summer  and  kept 
in  the  cellar  until  wanted.  Before  using,  it  should  be 
mixed  with  equal  parts  of  sand  and  sifted.  For  merely 
starting  plants,  rich  soil  is  not  essential.  Seeds  will  ger- 
minate in  moss  and  sand  as  well  as  in  the  richest  mould. 
After  the  plants  are  started  and  begin  to  grow,  a  little 


STARTING   PLANTS   IN   THE   HOUSE   OR  HOT-BED.      23 

plant  food  is  necessary,  and  in  this  case  leaf -mould  is  bet- 
ter than  moss.  Equal  parts  of  sods,  sand  and  well-rotted 
manure  made  into  a  compost  and  worked  over,  and 
sifted  until  it  is  fine,  is  a  favorite  material  for  potting 
plants. 

Dried  muck  from  the  swamps  is  an  exceedingly  useful 
material  for  the  gardener.  In  many  sections  of  this 
country  it  can  be  obtained  at  little  more  than  the  cost  of 
cutting,  drying,  and  carting  it.  No  gardener  ever  has 
too  much  of  it.  It  has  many  excellent  properties.  It 
will  make  heavy  soil  light.  It  will  make  dry  soil  moist. 
It  will  make  cold  soil  warm.  It  is  an  excellent  absorb- 
ent of  water  and  gases.  It  is  itself  a  manure,  and  can 
be  used  to  great  advantage  in  our  stables,  cow-houses 
and  pig-pens,  as  well  as  for  mixing  with  manure  in  our 
compost  heaps.  The  practical  difficulty  is  in  getting  the 
muck  dry  and  keeping  it  dry.  We  want  a  place  for  stor- 
ing it,  and  above  all  we  want  to  form  the  habit  of  getting 
muck  and  using  it  on  our  farms  and  gardens.  No  one 
doubts  its  value,  but  we  hardly  know  how  to  commence 
its  use.  It  is,  however,  a  very  simple  matter.  We  usu- 
ally throw  up  the  muck  in  the  summer  and  let  it  lie  in 
a  heap  until  winter,  when  we  have  plenty  of  leisure  to 
draw  it.  Another  plan  is  to  throw  it  up  in  July,  turn  it 
over  a  few  weeks  later  to  facilitate  the  drying,  and  early 
in  the  fall,  before  heavy  rains  set  in,  draw  it  to  a  shed,  or 
cellar,  or  barn,  where  it  can  be  kept  dry  and  ready  for 
use  at  any  time.  The  farmer  who  has  a  good  supply  of 
dried  muck  on  hand  will  find  it  of  great  use  in  many  of 
his  gardening  operations. 

The  boxes  I  have  used  for  starting  plants  are  two  feet 
and  one  half  long,  twelve  inches  wide,  and  three  inches 
deep,  made  of  half -inch  stuff.  A  screw  at  each  end, 
about  an  inch  from  the  top  on  the  outermost  corners,  is 
wound  round  by  a  piece  of  wire  two  feet  eight  inches 
long,  the  other  end  of  the  wire  being  twisted  round  to  a 


GARDENING    FOR   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 


screw  fastened  to  the  casement  of  the  window,  as  shown 
in  the  illustration  (fig.  1).  These  boxes  are  placed  on  the 
sill  of  the  window.  The  length  of  the  box,  of  course, 
being  determined  by  the  width  of  the  window,  it  can  be 
made  wide  or  narrow  according  as  you  have  more  or 
less  room  in  the  house.  There  maybe  windows  where 
you  could  have  them  two  feet  wide  without  inconven- 
ience; if  so  the  plants  will  do  just  as  well,  and  the 
boxes,  of  course,  will  hold  twice  the  number  of  plants. 
I  have  had  better  success  in  starting  plants  in  these  boxes 
in  the  house,  than  in  a  hot-bed  as  ordinarily  managed. 
The  plants  are  in  sight  all  the  time,  and  are  less  liable  to 


Fig.  1.— WINDOW-BOX. 

be  neglected.  The  children,  especially,  soon  learn  to  take 
an  interest  in  these  plant-boxes  in  the  house.  They  require 
a  little  assistance  in  sifting  the  soil  and  moss,  and  putting 
it  in  the  boxes,  and  in  fastening  the  boxes  in  the  window- 
sills.  But  they  can  sow  the  seed  and  cover  it  with  a  lit- 
tle sifted  moss  themselves.  It  is  very  desirable,  how- 
ever, to  write  the  names  of  the  seeds  to  be  sown,  with  the 
date  of  sowing,  on  some  wooden  labels  to  mark  the  rows 
where  the  different  seeds  and  different  varieties  are  sown. 
If  this  is  neglected  much  of  the  interest  will  be  lost. 


STARTING   PLANTS   IN   THE   HOUSE   OR   HOT-BED.      25 
MAKING   THE   HOT-BED. 

Whether  plants  are  or  are  not  started  in  boxes  in  the 
house,  a  hot-bed  will  be  found  very  useful.  If  possible 
this  should  be  placed  where  a  hedge,  a  fence,  or  building 
breaks  the  force  of  the  wind,  admitting  at  the  same 
time  the  full  rays  of  the  sun.  A  large  quantity  of 
manure  is  not  necessary. 

The  hot-bed  should  be  covered  with  five  or  six  inches 
of  light,  well  prepared  soil,  and  moss  or  leaf-mould,  or 
dryed  and  sifted  muck,  or  a  compost  of  rotted  sods,  etc., 
as  previously  described.  There  are  two  methods  of 
making  a  hot-bed.  One  is  to  stack  fermenting  manure 
on  the  surface,  taking  care  to  build  it  up  regularly 
and  solidly,  distributing  the  long  and  short  manure 
evenly.  Add  the  manure  in  layers  of  about  six  inches, 
beating  each  one  down  with  the  fork.  The  pile  should 
be  two  or  two  and  a  half  feet  high,  with  square  solid 
sides,  and  should  be  two  feet  wider  and  longer  than  the 
frame  of  the  hot-bed,  as  the  center  is  hotter  than  the  out- 
side, which  is  exposed  to  the  cold  air.  Another  method, 
and  one  economical  of  manure,  is  to  dig  a  pit  two  feet 
wider  and  longer  than  the  frame.  The  manure  is  care- 
fully placed  in  this  excavation,  being  trodden  down  even- 
ly and  solidly.  The  management  of  the  hot-bed  requires 
some  experience,  especially  in  regard  to  ventilation  and 
the  degree  of  heat  needed  by  different  classes  of  plants. 
Cabbage,  cauliflower,  lettuce,  radishes  and  celery  require 
only  a  moderate  degree  of  heat,  while  cucumbers,  egg- 
plant and  peppers  delight  in  a  soil  as  warm  as  your 
hand,  and  an  atmosphere  during  the  day  warmer  and 
more  moist  then  the  hottest  room.  Tomatoes  and  such 
flower  seeds  as  phlox,  petunia,  verbena  and  aster  need 
a  warmer  soil  than  the  cabbage,  but  not  so  hot  as  the  cu- 
cumber. Cucumbers  and  plants  requiring  the  strongest 
heat  should  be  placed  in  the  center  of  the  bed,  while  the 
2 


26  GAKDEKING   FOR  YOTOG  Al^D   OLD. 

cabbage  should  be  placed  nearer  the  outside,  either  on  the 
top  or  bottom,  where  they  can  be  more  readily  cooled  off 
by  opening  the  sash.  If  the  bed  is  very  hot,  more 
water  will  be  required,  and  the  sash  will  have  to  be 
open  longer  during  the  day.  If  the  bed  is  too  cold  it  is 
well  to  surround  the  outside  of  the  frame  with  warm 
manure,  and  at  night  cover  the  sash  with  a  straw  mat  or 
blankets;  and  use  only  water  fully  up  to  blood  heat.  If 
the  plants  are  drawn  up — if  they  are  tall  and  thin  rather 
than  stout  and  stocky,  it  is  a  sign  that  the  plants  are 
either  too  thick  or  the  bed  too  warm.  They  want  fresh 
air  and  abundance  of  sunshine. 

COLD  FRAMES. 

A  cold  frame  is  simply  a  frame  and  sash  of  a  hot-bed 
without  any  manure  underneath.  Cold  frames  are  quite 
useful  for  hardening  off  plants,  but  it  costs  very  little 
more  to  place  a  foot  or  fcvo  of  manure  underneath  them, 
and  in  our  climate  a  little  bottom  heat  is  often  very  de- 
sirable. We  can  harden  off  the  plants  sufficiently  by 
taking  off  the  sash  in  whole  or  in  part.  A  well  sheltered 
spot  in  the  garden  with  ti  warm  sunny  exposure  is  not  a 
bad  substitute  for  a  cold  frame. 

INSECTS. 

I  am  not  going  to  write  about  insects.  I  will  leave 
that  to  the  professional  Entomologist.  We  need  to  know 
the  habits  of  the  various  insects  which  injure  or  destroy 
our  crops.  Last  winter  one  of  my  neighbors,  Col.  B., 
during  the  busy  part  of  my  seed  business  volunteered  to 
help  me  by  answering  letters.  He  was  not  used  to  the 
business  and  sometimes  got  out  of  patience.  One  man 
wanted  to  know  how  much  onion  seed  to  sow  per  acre  ? 
another  the  proper  time  to  sow  mangels  ?  another 


INSECTS.  27 

whether  it  was  necessary  to  sow  celery  in  the  hot-bed  ? 
these  and  many  other  similar  questions  the  Colonel,  with 
a  little  prompting  on  my  part,  managed  to  answer  to  his 
own  satisfaction,  and  I  hope  to  the  satisfaction  of  my 
correspondents.  But  one  man  wanted  to  know  the  best 
way  to  kill  Cabbage-worms  !  I  was  busy  at  the  time  and 
the  Colonel  thought  he  would  not  bother  me,  and  so  he 
wrote  somewhat  as  follows  :  "Dear  Sir — The  best  way 
to  kill  Cabbage-worms  is  to  shoot  them.  Eespectfully 
yours,  Joseph  Harris,  per  B." 

I  do  not  know  who  my  correspondent  was,  and  do 
not  know  whether  he  applied  the  Colonel's  remedy.  No 
one  but  a  military  man  would  have  suggested  it.  The 
real  trouble  is  to  know  where  to  shoot.  It  is  certainly 
useless  to  attack  in  this  way  the  worms  themselves,  but  if 
the  Colonel  meant  to  have  a  few  days  sport  with  a  double 
barrelled  shot-gun,  in  shooting  on  the  wing  the  white 
butterflies  which  lay  the  eggs  that  produce  the  green 
Cabbage-worm,  the  remedy  might  be  popular  with  the 
boys.  Killing  the  butterflies,  or  catching  them  with 
nets,  is  the  true  way  to  get  rid  of  the  Cabbage-worm. 

On  my  own  farm  I  do  nothing  to  check  the  ravages  of 
the  Cabbage-worm  except  to  dust  the  plants  while  the 
dew  is  on,  with  a  mixture  of  plaster  and  superphosphate, 
say  two  parts  of  plaster  to  one  of  superphosphate.  I  am 
not  sure  that  it  lessens  the  number  of  worms,  but  at  any 
rate  it  stimulates  the  growth  of  the  plant,  especially  if 
you  hoe  the  mixture  into  the  ground  around  each  plant. 
The  only  practical  remedy  I  have  ever  tried  is  heavy 
manuring  and  thorough  cultivation,  and  setting  out 
plants  by  the  thousand,  instead  of  by  the  hundred. 

THE   USE   OF   POISONS. 

With  melons,  cucumbers,  and  squashes,  the  Striped- 
bug  is  a  great  pest.  We  all  get  angry  enough  at  them 


28  GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG   AND    OLD. 

to  shoot  them,  but  Hellebore  and  Paris  Green  are  more 
effective  implements  of  destruction  than  the  rifle  and 
shot-gun.  As  soon  as  the  plants  appear,  it  is  a  good  plan, 
while  the  dew  is  on  these,  to  dust  them  with  White  Helle- 
bore powder.  Paris  Green  is  a  more  powerful  remedy, 
but  needs  to  be  applied,  while  the  plants  are  young,  in 
very  small  doses.  One  of  my  men,  this  spring,  when 
we  were  applying  Paris  Green  to  the  potatoes,  took  a 
pailful  of  the  water  containing  about  a  teaspoonful  of  the 
Paris  Green  to  the  gallon,  and  applied  it  to  the  young 
cucumber  and  melon  vines  in  his  garden.  It  killed  many 
of  the  plants,  though  it  had  no  injurious  effect  whatever 
on  the  potato  vines.  If  Paris  Green  is  used  on  melons, 
cucumbers,  squash,  etc.,  I  would  put  in  a  teaspoonful 
of  the  poison  to  ten  quarts  of  water,  or  say  an  ordinary 
pailful,  at  the  same  time  stirring  into  the  water  two 
tablespoonfuls  of  White  Hellebore  powder.  I  have  used 
this  mixture  on  young  vines  without  injury.  I  do  not 
think  it  will  kill  all  the  bugs,  but  at  any  rate  it  greatly 
lessens  their  numbers  and  gives  the  vines  a  chance  to 
grow.  The  real  point  is  to  apply  the  poisonous  mix- 
ture early  enough.  If  you  wait  until  the  bugs  appear, 
they  will  be  very  apt  to  seriously  injure  the  vines  before 
you  notice  them. 

As  the  vines  grow  larger  the  leaves  become  tougher 
and  less  succulent,  and  there  is  more  strength  and  vital- 
ity in  the  plant.  A  stronger  mixture  of  Paris  Green, 
therefore,  can  be  used  about  the  time  the  vines  begin  to 
run.  So  far  as  my  observation  goes,  the  Striped-bug 
attacks  squash  and  pumpkin  vines  several  days  earlier 
than  the  Squash-bug.  This  is  fortunate,  for  the  Squash- 
bug  is  much  more  voracious  and  destructive  to  squashes 
than  the  Striped-bug.  Paris  Green  applied  with  water, 
say  about  a  tablespoonful  to  ten  quarts,  is  as  good  a 
remedy  as  can  be  used.  I  would  put  on  a  weak  mixture 
of  Paris  Green  and  Hellebore,  say  a  teaspoonful  of  the 


INSECTS.  29 

first  and  two  tablespoonfuls  of  White  Hellebore  powder 
to  ten  quarts  of  water,  on  young  squash,  cucumber  and 
melon  plants.  And  for  squashes,  as  soon  as  the  Squash- 
bugs  make  their  appearance,  I  would  put  on  Paris  Green 
alone  at  the  rate  of  one  tablespoonful  to  ten  quarts  of 
water.  We  sprinkle  the  poison  mixed  with  water  on  the 
leaves  of  the  plants  with  a  wisp  broom,  being  careful  to 
keep  the  water  in  the  pail  frequently  stirred  to  prevent 
the  heavy  poison  from  settling  to  the  bottom.  I  think 
the  reason  my  man  lost  his  cucumber  and  melon  plants 
was  this  :  he  had  been  applying  Paris  Green  to  the 
potatoes  and  had  some  left  at  the  bottom  of  the  pail. 
The  poison  had  settled  to  the  bottom,  and  conse- 
quently the  mixture  he  applied  to  the  cucumbers  and 
melons  was  far  stronger  than  that  which  he  used  on  the 
potatoes,  and  much  stronger  than  is  necessary. 

Dusting  cucumber,  melon,  and  squash  plants  with 
plaster  early  in  the  morning,  when  the  dew  is  on,  has 
long  been  resorted  to  to  check  the  ravages  of  the  Striped- 
bug.  It  is  undoubtedly  a  good  thing.  A  little  Paris 
Green,  however,  either  applied  in  water  or  mixed  with 
the  plaster,  is  a  much  more  effective  application. 

For  worms  and  caterpillars  of  all  kinds  which  feed  on 
the  leaves  and  stalks  of  plants,  such  as  the  Currant- worm, 
the  Army-worm,  and  Tent-caterpillar  on  fruit  trees, 
the  caterpillar  on  celery  and  tomato  plants,  and  the 
Potato- worms  are  all  easily  destroyed  with  Paris  Green. 
Their  great  voracity  leads  to  their  destruction.  It  re- 
quires but  a  single  particle  of  the  poison,  swallowed 
with  the  juice  of  the  leaf  to  finish  them. 

London  Purple  may  be  better  than  Paris  Green,  and 
there  may  be  other  poisons  better  still.  But  as  we  have 
been  using  the  latter  for  many  years  for  the  Potato- 
bugs,  and  have  become  accustomed  to  it,  we  had  better 
continue  to  use  it  until  something  very  decidedly  better 
is  discovered. 


30  GARDENING   FOR  YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

White  Hellebore  is  a  far  less  dangerous  poison,  espec- 
ially when  applied  in  water,  but  it  is  generally  suffi- 
ciently powerful  to  kill  all  kinds  of  young  worms  and 
caterpillars.  Worms  and  caterpillars  are  much  more 
easily  poisoned  than  their  parent  bugs  or  moths.  In 
other  words,  a  weaker  mixture  of  Paris  Green  will  kill 
the  larvaB  or  worms  of  the  Potato-bug  than  is  required  to 
kill  the  bugs  or  beetles  themselves.  The  worms  and  cat- 
erpillars which  feed  on  the  succulent  leaves,  are  little 
more  than  sacks  of  sap,  and  it  ought  not  to  require  much 
poison  to  wither  them  up.  The  Striped-bug,  the  Squash- 
bug  and  the  Potato-bug  or  Beetle,  when  full  grown,  are 
not  easily  poisoned,  and  a  little  hand-picking  before  they 
lay  their  eggs  on  the  leaves  can  be  practised  with  great 
advantage,  not  by  any  means,  however,  neglecting  to  use 
the  poison  for  the  destruction  of  the  larvae,  and  young 
bugs. 

CAEE   OF   POISONS. 

I  need  hardly  say  that  too  much  care  can  not  be  exer- 
cised in  the  use  of  poison.  It  is  dangerous  business,  and 
I  hope  and  believe  that  some  article  will  be  discovered 
which  will  kill  insects  and  worms,  but  which  will  not  in- 
jure man  or  beast.  In  the  meantime,  I  would,  so  far  as 
possible,  limit  myself  to  the  use  of  only  one  or  two  poi- 
sons, say  Hellebore  and  Paris  Green,  and  they  should  at 
all  times  be  kept  under  lock  and  key,  and  the  pail  or 
other  vessels  employed  in  their  use,  should  be  locked 
up  and  kept  for  the  special  purpose  only.  This  is  a  mat- 
ter of  much  importance,  not  only  for  our  own  safety  and 
that  of  our  animals,  but  for  the  accomplishment  of  the 
object  for  which  we  keep  the  poison.  A  prompt  applica- 
tion is  often  absolutely  essential  to  its  efficacy.  We 
should  therefore,  at  all  times,  have  every  thing  connected 
with  the  use  of  the  poison,  not  only  in  readiness,  but 
where  we  can  easily  lay  our  hands  upon  it. 


CULTIVATION   OF  VEGETABLES 
IN   THE   FARM-GARDEN. 


ASPARAGUS. 

Sow  Asparagus  seed  in  rich,  mellow  soil,  early  in  the 
spring,  in  rows  about  fifteen  inches  apart,  dropping  the 
seed  an  inch  apart  in  the  rows  and  covering  about  one 
inch  deep.  When  the  plants  come  up  hoe  the  ground 
between  the  rows,  and  pull  out  any  weeds  that  are  among 
the  plants  and  those  that  cannot  be  reached  with  the  hoe. 
Next  spring,  when  the  plants  are  a  year  old,  set  them 
out  in  the  bed  where  they  are  to  stay  for  the  rest  of  their 
lives.  The  land  should  be  free  from  stagnant  water. 
It  cannot  be  too  rich.  But  the  real  secret  of  success  in 
growing  large  asparagus  is  to  give  the  plants  plenty  of 
room  and  to  keep  out  all  the  weeds. 

If  you  have  no  asparagus  bed,  at  least  a  year's  time 
may  be  saved  by  purchasing  plants  or  roots.  As  a  rule, 
those  on  sale  are  two  years  old.  If  strong  and  well  grown, 
one-year-old  plants  are  quite  as  good  as  those  that  are 
older.  In  fact,  I  would  rather  have  a  good  one-year-old 
plant  than  a  stunted,  two-year-old  one.  It  is  never  de- 
sirable to  set  out  plants  that  are  more  than  two  years'  old. 

The  true  plan,  if  you  have  no  asparagus  bed,  is  to  buy 
roots  enough  to  set  out  a  bed  this  spring,  and  at  the  same 
time  sow  a  few  ounces  of  seed,  as  above  directed,  in  an- 
other part  of  the  garden.  A  pound  of  good  seed  ought 
to  give  at  least  ten  thousand  plants. 

It  would  be  well  to  sow  the  seed  thicker  than  I  have 
(80 


32  GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

recommended,  and  then  thin  out  the  plants  wide  enough 
apart  to  admit  the  use  of  the  hoe.  In  raising  asparagus 
plants,  we  must  aim  to  keep  the  land  clean  by  the  free 
use  of  the  hoe  rather  than  by  hand- weeding. 

The  advantage  of  raising  your  own  asparagus  roots  is 
very  great.  If  you  take  pains  to  sow  on  rich,  mellow 
land,  and  to  keep  the  bed  scrupulously  free  from  weeds, 
you  will  get  stronger  and  better  plants  at  one  year  old 
than  the  average  two-year-old  roots  generally  offered  for 
sale.  Then  again,  when  you  have  your  own  roots,  you 
can  let  them  remain  undisturbed  in  the  original  bed  un- 
till  you  are  ready  to  transplant  them. 

MAKING   AN  ASPARAGUS   BED. 

The  old  directions  for  planting  an  asparagus  bed  were 
well  calculated  to  deter  any  young  gardener  from  making 
the  attempt.  I  can  recollect  very  well  the  first  asparagus 
bed  I  ever  planted.  The  labor  and  manure  must  have 
cost  at  the  rate  of  a  thousand  dollars  an  acre,  and  after 
all  was  done,  no  better  results  were  obtained  than  we  now 
secure  at  one-tenth  the  expense.  In  setting  out  a  large 
asparagus  bed  for  market,  I  would  make  the  rows  not  less 
than  four  feet  apart,  and  set  out  the  plants  in  the  rows 
two  and  a  half  to  three  feet  apart,  or  wide  enough  to  ad- 
mit the  use  of  the  horse-hoe  both  ways.  In  growing  as- 
paragus we  not  only  want  a  good  crop,  but  to  get  it  early 
in  the  season,  and  of  the  largest  size.  The  size  and  earli- 
ness,  apart  from  rich,  warm,  dry  soil,  depend  principally 
upon  the  size  and  vigor  of  the  roots  the  previous  year. 
A  weak  root  throws  up  a  weak  shoot,  while  a  strong  root, 
in  which  there  is  a  considerable  quantity  of  accumulated 
nutriment, will  throw  up  a  large  shoot  early  in  the  season. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  thin  planting  is  so  desirable. , 
Thin  planting  with  clean  culture,  on  any  ordinarily  en- 
riched garden  soil,  will  give  us  far  larger  and  earlier 


POLE   B.EANS.  33 

asparagus  shoots  than  can  be  obtained  from  the  most 
elaborately  made,  and  most  excessively  manured  bed,  the 
plants  in  which  are  too  thick. 

It  is  a  popular  notion  that  common  salt  is  exceedingly 
beneficial  as  a  manure  for  asparagus.  I  do  not  know 
that  there  is  any  positive  proof  of  this,  but  at  any  rate, 
the  salt  will  do  no  harm,  even  if  applied  thick  enough  to 
kill  many  of  our  common  weeds.  The  salt  is  usually 
sown  broadcast  on  the  asparagus  bed  early  in  the  spring, 
say  at  the  rate  of  ten  bushels  per  acre.  It  has  been  rec- 
ommended to  sow  salt  at  the  rate  of  two  or  three  pounds 
per  square  yard,  or  say  at  the  rate  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  bushels  per  acre.  I  mention  this  to  show  that 
salt  will  not  injure  asparagus. 

In  setting  out  asparagus  plants  we  mark  off  the  rows 
with  a  common  corn-marker  three  feet  and  a  half  or  four 
feet  one  way  and  two  feet  and  a  half  or  three  feet  the 
other  way.  Set  out  a  single  plant  where  the  lines  cross. 
It  is  desirable  to  disentangle  and  spread  out  the  asparagus 
roots  horizontally  in  every  direction.  On  light  sandy 
soil  the  work  can  be  done  with  the  hand,  but  on  heavier 
soils  it  is  better  to  remove  the  soil  with  a  hoe,  at  the 
same  time  working  and  loosening  the  soil  underneath. 
This  will  greatly  facilitate  the  operation  of  setting  out 
the  plants.  I  do  not  think  it  is  necessary  or  advisable  to 
set  out  the  plants  as  deep  as  is  sometimes  recommended. 
Three  or  four  inches  is  deep  enough.  Sometimes  a  shovel- 
ful of  manure  is  spread  on  the  soil  above  each  plant. 

POLE  BEANS. 

The  most  delicious  of  all  Beans  is  the  Lima.  Like  all 
good  things,  however,  it  is  more  work  to  grow  them  than 
common  field  beans.  They  have  to  be  provided  with 
something  to  cling  to.  Poles,  seven  or  eight  feet  long, 


34  GARDENING   FOE  YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

are  best  for  this  purpose.  Unless  you  have  poles  from 
the  woods,  a  good  plan  is  to  get  inch-square  strips  from 
the  saw  mill  or  lumber  yard.  Such  strips  are  handy  in 
a  garden  for  many  purposes.  Strips  an  inch  and  a  quar- 
ter square  are  much  stronger  and  better,  but  it  is  not 
always  so  easy  to  get  them.  I  said  Lima-beans  could  not 
be  grown  without  some  trouble,  not  only  have  you  to 
provide  poles  for  them,  but  they  are  very  tender;  they 
came  from  a  warm  climate,  and  do  not  like  a  cold  soil. 
In  the  tropics  the  Lima-bean  is  a  perennial  plant.  It  does 
not  need  to  be  raised  from  seed  every  year,  but  the  same 
plant  grows  on  year  after  year,  so  the  books  tell  us,  and 
I  presume  it  is  true  ;  at  any  rate  the  Lima-bean  here 
seems  as  though  it  would  grow  the  year  round  if  the 
weather  was  warm  enough,  as  it  is  often  growing  when 
the  frosts  of  autumn  strike  it.  We  must  do  all  we  can 
to  make  the  soil  warm  in  the  spring  and  to  push  the 
plants  forward  rapidly  in  summer.  A  light,  sandy  soil  is 
warmer  and  drier  in  the  spring  than  the  heavier  and 
stiffer  soils,  and  Lima-beans  can  be  planted  earlier  on 
warm  sandy  land  than  on  the  clay.  But  the  best  crop  of 
Lima-beans  I  ever  raised,  was  on  a  soil  about  half  way  be- 
tween a  sand  and  a  clay ;  and  the  poorest  crop  I  ever 
raised  was  on  very  light  sandy  soil. 

I  am  inclined  to  think  the  trouble  in  the  latter  case 
was,  that  the  beans  were  planted  too  thickly  and  were  not 
kept  as  clean  as  they  should  have  been.  You  cannot 
grow  a  crop  of  Lima-beans  and  a  crop  of  weeds  on  the 
same  land  at  the  same  time  ;  and  if  you  have  three  hills 
of  beans  where  there  should  be  only  two,  one  hill  is  a 
weed.  Lima-beans  should  not  be  planted  until  the  soil 
is  warm,  or  the  seed  will  rot  in  the  ground.  Here  we 
can  rarely  plant  before  the  middle  of  May.  We  make 
hills  about  four  feet  apart,  and  plant  six  or  seven  good 
beans  in  a  hill  ;  four  plants  in  a  hill  are  enough,  but  you 
know  that  something  may  happen  to  injure  or  kill  some 


POLE  BEANS.  35 

of  them,  and  so  it  is  better  to  put  in  more  than  you  really 
need,  and  thin  out  the  weaker  plants,  leaving  three  or 
four  of  the  strongest  and  best  in  the  hill.  It  is  a  good 
plan  to  set  the  pole  in  the  hill  before  planting  the  beans. 
If  the  pole  is  not  put  in  until  the  beans  are  growing,  you 
are  apt  to  disturb  the  plants.  Put  the  poles  in  at  least  a 
foot  deep,  so  that  the  wind  will  not  blow  them  over  when 
covered  with  vines.  We  sometimes  plant  four  or  five 
Lima-beans  in  a  flower  pot  in  the  house  or  hot-bed,  and 
when  the  plants  are  well  started  and  the  soil  is  warm 
enough,  we  set  out  the  plants  in  the  garden,  being  care- 
ful not  to  disturb  the  roots  any  more  than  we  can  help. 
I  have  had  a  very  early  crop  of  Lima-beans  by  adopting 
this  plan. 

It  is  a  pity  that  we  cannot  get  a  good  dwarf  variety  of 
Lima-bean.  We  have  a  great  variety  of  excellent  dwarf 
or  bush  beans  that  are  good  for  eating,  pod  and  all,  in  the 
green  state,  or  good  for  shelling  when  green,  like  Lima- 
beans  and  peas,  or  good  for  cooking  when  ripe.  It  is  not 
often,  however,  that  the  same  variety  of  bean  is  equally 
good  for  all  these  purposes.  The  Lima-bean  is  generally 
used  for  but  one  thing.  You  could  not  eat  the  green 
pods,  and  they  are  not  often  cooked  when  dry  and  ripe, 
though  I  am  told  they  are  very  good.  They  are  the  most 
delicious  of  all  beans  for  shelling  and  cooking  when 
green. 

OTHER    POLE    BEANS. 

There  are  other  varieties  that  are  specially  adapt- 
ed for  string  beans,  that  is,  for  eating  the  pods  while 
green.  I  do  not  know  that  the  pole  varieties  are  any  bet- 
ter for  this  purpose  than  the  dwarf  or  bush  kinds.  One 
of  the  best  varieties  of  pole  beans,  is  the  Speckled  Cran- 
berry or  London  Horticultural.  It  does  not  usually  grow 
over  five  or  six  feet  high,  and  I  have  known  a  good  crop 


36  GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG   AXD   OLD. 

raised  without  poles,  but  this  is  a  slovenly  method  which 
ought  not  to  be  tolerated  in  the  garden.  Another  excel- 
lent pole  bean  is  the  Scarlet  Runner.  It  is  a  rampant 
grower  and  is  frequently  used  as  a  screen;  the  flowers  are 
beautiful  and  the  pods,  gathered  when  young,  are  de- 
licious. 

BUSH     BEANS. 

For  string  beans  the  best  variety  I  have  yet  grown,  is 
the  Black  Wax  or  Butter-bean.  The  Golden  Wax  is  a 
larger  bean  and  more  productive,  but  I  do  not  think  the 
pods  are  any  better.  The  Early  Valentine  is  a  little 
earlier  than  the  Wax  or  Butter-bean,  and  on  this  account 
deserves  a  place  in  every  garden.  The  White  Kidney  is 
a  very  valuable  bean.  It  affords  very  fair  string  beans,  and 
the  pods,  which  are  not  wanted  for  this  purpose,  can  be 
left  on  the  vines  to  ripen,  when  they  will  prove  very  ac- 
ceptable for  boiling  and  baking. 

The  cultivation  of  bush  beans  is  a  simple  matter.  In 
the  field  where  they  are  to  be  cultivated  with  a  horse-hoe, 
they  are  planted  in  rows  about  thirty  inches  apart,  and 
five  or  six  beans  are  dropped  in  a  hill,  or  place,  every 
twelve  or  fifteen  inches  in  the  row.  A  larger  yield  proba- 
bly could  be  obtained  by  drilling  the  beans  continuously 
in  the  row,  say  one  bean  to  each  inch ;  but  it  is  a  little 
more  work  to  pull  the  beans  when  ripe,  and  some  of  our 
farmers  think  it  is  more  work  to  hoe  them.  In  the  garden 
it  is  not  necessary  to  plant  the  beans  so  far  apart.  In  my 
own  garden,  I  make  the  rows  fifteen  inches  apart,  and 
drop  the  beans  about  an  inch  apart  in  the  row.  The  chil- 
dren are  very  apt  to  sow  them  a  good  deal  thicker  than 
this,  and  I  have  noticed  that  the  first  dish  of  beans  always 
comes  from  the  children's  garden.  As  a  rule,  thick  seeding 
favors  early  maturity ;  at  any  rate  this  is  so  with  peas, 
beans,  and  the  grain  crops,  such  as  wheat,  barley,  and 


BEETS.  37 

oats.  Of  course  there  is  a  limit.  If  you  sow  too  thickly 
you  would  not  get  any  crop  at  all,  and  in  any  case  the 
premature  ripening  is  obtained  at  the  expense  of  the 
yield.  What  I  mean  is,  when  you  get  a  very  early  crop 
it  will  usually  be  a  small  one.  I  should  plant  a  row  of 
Early  Valentine  beans  quite  thickly,  say  two  beans  to 
each  inch  of  row,  and  then,  a  week  later,  sow  a  few  more 
rows  of  Black  Wax  or  Golden  Wax,  three  beans  to  each 
two  inches  of  row,  and  then  when  the  ground  is 
thoroughly  warm,  about  the  first  week  in  June,  sow  the 
main  crop  not  thicker  than  one  bean  to  each  inch  of  row. 
The  White  Kidney  may  be  sown  in  the  same  way  and 
about  the  same  time.  I  need  hardly  say  that  the  ground 
must  be  kept  hoed  between  the  rows,  and  all  the  weeds 
pulled  out  from  between  the  plants.  The  Black  Wax  is 
the  besfc  of  all  the  string  beans;  a  good  deal  depends, 
however,  on  obtaining  a  good  succulent  growth,  and 
gathering  the  pods  before  they  become  too  old  and  tough. 
For  this  reason  it  is  better  to  plant  at  two  or  three  dif- 
ferent times  in  succession,  and  it  is  also  desirable,  in  order 
to  favor  luxuriant  growth,  to  plant  on  warm,  rich,  sandy 
land,  and  especially  to  keep  it  free  from  weeds. 


BEETS. 

The  best  of  all  Beets  is  supposed  to  be  the  Egyptian 
Blood  Turnip.  The  Editor  of  the  AMERICAN  AGRICUL- 
TURIST once  said,  that  no  one  knew  any  thing  about 
beets  until  he  had  eaten  the  Egyptian.  It  certainly  is 
a  delicious  beet,  but  like  many  other  good  things  it  can 
be  spoiled  by  neglect  or  bad  management.  It  should  be 
grown  rapidly  and  not  too  thick  in  the  row,  and  gathered 
before  it  becomes  too  large  and  tough.  The  Bassano- 
beet  is  very  early  and  easily  grown.  It  is  larger  than  the 
Egyptian,  but  the  flesh  is  lighter  colored,  and  on  this  ac- 


38  GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

count  not  so  attractive.  The  flesh  is  soft,  sweet,  and  well 
flavored.  Its  earliness  entitles  it  to  a  place  in  every 
garden. 

The  Early  Blood  Turnip  is  more  extensively  cultivated 
in  all  sections  of  the  United  States  than  any  other  variety. 
It  is  excellent  both  for  summer  and  winter  use.  For 
winter  use,  however,  it  should  not  be  sown  before  the 
first  or  second  week  in  June.  I  have  raised  an  excellent 
crop  sown  as  late  as  the  middle  of  July.  As  a  winter 
beet  the  Long  Smooth  Blood  Red  is  the  best  variety — 
or  perhaps  I  should  say,  it  is  the  most  popular  variety. 
For  my  own  use  I  think  the  Blood  Turnip  is  just  as  good 
a  winter  beet,  if  sown  late,  as  the  Long  Smooth  Red, 
but  it  is  not  so  productive. 

The  cultivation  of  beets  is  by  no  means  difficult; 
they  will  do  well  on  a  variety  of  soils.  The  great  point 
is  to  make  the  land  rich  and  mellow.  You  can  grow 
beets  or  Mangel  Wurzels  on  much  heavier  or  more  clayey 
land  than  you  can  turnips.  The  only  point  is  to  manure 
heavily  and  work  the  soil  thoroughly.  Recollect,  how- 
ever, it  will  not  do  to  work  such  land  while  it  is  wet. 
Remember  also,  if  you  let  such  land  remain  unplowed 
or  unspaded  until  it  is  baked  by  our  hot  sun,  you  will 
have  a  tough  job  on  your  hands.  You  must  take  it  when 
it  is  neither  too  wet  nor  too  dry.  Such  land  ought 
always  to  be  plowed  or  spaded  in  the  autumn,  and 
again  in  the  spring,  as  soon  as  it  is  dry  enough  to  crum- 
ble to  pieces.  This  kind  of  heavy  land  is  not  easily 
managed,  but  when  got  into  good  shape  and  properly 
cultivated,  it  stands  the  drouth  well  and  is  immensely 
productive. 

For  early  beets,  it  is  best  to  select  a  warm  sandy  soil, 
and  sow  the  seed  in  rows  as  soon  as  the  frost  is  out  of  the 
ground.  A  week  and  two  later  sow  again.  I  sow  mine  in 
rows  fifteen  inches  apart.  I  say  fifteen  inches,  not  be- 
cause fourteen  inches  would  not  be  as  good,  or  sixteen 


BEETS.  39 

inches  would  not  be  better,  but  because  I  happen  to  have 
a  garden  marker  that  makes  rows  fifteen  inches  apart,  a 
distance  which  suits  most  crops.  It  costs  no  more 
to  hoe  a  row  fourteen  or  fifteen  inches  wide  than  one 
which  is  only  seven  or  eight  inches  wide.  The  boys 
who  cultivate  com,  going  twice  in  a  row,  will  under- 
stand why  this  is  so.  If  your  corn  is  three  and  a 
half  feet  apart,  is  is  no  more  work  to  cultivate  it  than 
if  it  was  two  and  a  half  or  three  feet  apart,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  you  and  the  horse  have  to  go  up  and  down 
each  row,  no  matter  how  wide  or  how  narrow  it  may  be, 
and  so  it  is  with  hoeing.  If  the  hoe,  when  placed 
by  the  side  of  the  plants  in  the  drill,  will  reach 
the  center  of  the  row,  it  is  no  more  work  to  hoe  a 
wide  row  than  a  narrow  one.  And  there  are  many 
reasons  in  favor  of  wide  rows,  especially  in  our  dry, 
hot  climate.  Vegetables  and  garden  crops  of  nearly 
all  kinds  need  dry,  rich  land,  and  an  abundance  of 
moisture.  The  dry  land  we  get  by  underdraining  where 
needed.  The  rich  land  we  get  by  heavy  manuring,  and 
the  moisture  we  get  by  killing  weeds  and  keeping  our 
cultivated  plants  a  good  distance  apart.  Plants  evapor- 
ate large  quantities  of  water,  and  if  you  have  three  plants 
on  a  spot  of  land  containing  only  moisture  enough  for 
two,  the  growth  of  these  three  plants  will  be  checked 
for  want  of  the  necessary  moisture.  As  a  rule  we  can 
not  profitably  increase  the  supply  of  water,  but  we  can 
very  easily  reduce  the  number  of  plants. 

Sow  the  beets  in  rows  fifteen  inches  apart,  and  thin  out 
the  plants  in  the  rows  to  four  or  five  inches  apart;  then, 
as  the  plants  grow,  thin  them  out  still  more,  as  soon 
as  any  of  them  are  large  enough  to  use,  and  you  will 
have  an  abundant  supply  of  this  healthful  and  delicious 
vegetable. 

In  good  beet  seed  there  are  two  or  three  seeds  together 
in  a  sort  of  very  rough  bur.  If  the  seed  is  sown  with  a 


40  GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

drill  it  is  necessary  to  recollect  that  seed  varies  greatly 
in  size.  American-grown  seed  is  much  larger  than  that 
which,  is  imported.  And  Egyptian  Blood  Turnip  is 
nearly  always  a  small  inferior  looking  seed. 

Our  garden  drills  have  a  hole  for  sowing  beet  seed,  but 
this  hole  would  either  sow  the  Egyptian  too  thick  or  the 
Bassano,  or  Dewing's  Blood  Turnip,  or  the  Long  Smooth 
Ked  much  too  thin.  If  the  seed  is  good,  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  drop  more  than  one  seed  to  every  inch  of  row.  Of 
course  it  is  not  necessary  to  sow  even  so  thick  as  this, 
but  it  is  better  and  safer  to  sow  three  or  four  times  more 
than  you  need,  rather  than  to  run  the  risk  of  having  the 
crops  too  thin. 

MANGEL    WURZEL. 

Mangel  Wurzels  are  simply  large  beets  grown  for  cattle, 
sheep,  and  swine.  Any  one  who  can  raise  beets  in  the 
garden  can  raise  Mangel  Wurzels  in  the  field.  All  there 
is  to  be  done  is  to  make  the  land  as  rich  in  the  field  and 
keep  it  as  clean  and  mellow  as  you  do  in  the  garden. 
It  would  be  a  good  thing,  however,  to  sow  a  few  Mangel 
Wurzels  in  the  garden  until  you  became  familiar  with  its 
habit  of  growth.  I  onco  had  a  farmer's  son  hoeing 
Mangels  for  me  in  the  field,  and  I  had  the  greatest  diffi- 
culty in  persuading  him  to  thin  them  out  sufficiently. 
The  plants  were  very  small  and  he  wanted  to  leave  them 
about  an  inch  apart  in  the  row,  while  I  wanted  him  to 
leave  only  a  single  good  plant  to  every  foot  of  the  row. 
The  land  was  rich  and  we  had  moist,  growing  weather, 
and  in  less  than  a  month  the  plants,  though  a  foot  apart 
in  the  row,  completely  covered  the  ground.  "  I  had  no 
idea  that  such  little  bits  of  things  could  grow  so  rapidly," 
he  said.  Had  his  father  encouraged  him  to  sow  a  few 
Mangel  Wurzels  in  the  garden  he  would  have  known 
better. 


MA.NGEL  WUKZEU  41 

If  yon  sow  Mangel  "Wurzels  in  the  garden,  mark  off  the 
rows  fifteen  inches  apart,  and  then  run  the  same  marker 
across  the  rows  and  drop  three  or  four  seeds,  where  the 
lines  cross,  and  cover  them  about  an  inch  deep,  patting 
the  ground  smooth  with  the  back  of  the  hoe,  just  as  you 
do  when  planting  corn  in  the  field.  When  the  Mangel 
Wurzels  are  fairly  up,  hoe  them  and  thin  out  the  plants, 
leaving  only  one  good  strong  plant  in  each  hill.  Suffer 
not  a  weed  to  grow,  and  if  the  land  is  rich  enough  you 
will  have  a  great  crop  of  roots.  Next  year  you  may 
wish  to  plant  an  acre  or  two  in  the  field. 

There  are  several  varieties  of  Mangel  Wurzel;  in  color 
they  are  nearly  all  either  red  or  yellow.  The  red,  however, 
is  not  by  any  means  a  deep  bright  red  like  the  Blood 
Turnip,  or  the  Long  Smooth  Blood  Beet.  There  is  no 
mistaking  the  one  for  the  other. 

In  shape  we  have  round,  or  globe  Mangels,  and  the 
long  varieties,  with  an  intermediate  class,  called  ovoids. 

This  gives  us  six  distinct  kinds  of  Mangel  Wurzel,  and 
in  addition  to  these  six,  we  have  a  great  number  of  varie- 
ties, or  at  any  rate  a  great  number  of  names.  We  have 
Carter's  Yellow  Globe,  and  Sutton's  Yellow  Globe,  and 
Harris'  Yellow  Globe.  All  that  is  meant  by  it,  or  at  any 
rate  all  I  mean  by  it  is,  that  we  have  taken  great  pains 
to  select  every  year  just  such  Mangels  as  come  nearest  to 
our  idea  of  what  a  good  root  should  be,  and  we  set  out 
these  roots  for  seed.  They  are  not  distinct  varieties, 
but  merely  good  strains  which  we  wish  to  propagate. 

It  would  be  a  good  thing  for  a  farmer's  son  to  get  into 
the  habit  of  selecting  some  of  the  best  Mangels  and  set- 
ting them  out  for  seed.  I  am  not  going  to  tell  you  which 
is  the  best  variety  of  Mangel  or  the  best  strain  to  grow. 
On  my  own  farm  we  prefer  the  Yellow  Globe. 

They  do  not  grow  so  deep  in  the  ground  as  the  long 
kinds,  and  are  much  more  easily  harvested.  We  think 
they  are  not  so  coarse  as  the  Long  Red  Mangel,  and  we 


4:2  GARDENING   FOB  YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

have  a  fancy  that  the  yellow  Mangel  makes  yellower 
butter  than  the  red.  Probably  this  is  nothing  but  fancy. 
I  have  weighed  a  big  crop  of  Long  Red  and  Yellow 
Globe  Mangel,  growing  side  by  side  in  the  same  field,  and 
the  scales  indicated  very  little  difference  in  the  two  crops. 
The  general  impression,  however,  is  that  the  Long  Red 
will  produce  a  larger  crop  per  acre  than  the  Ovoid  or 
Globe  varieties. 

THE  CABBAGES. 

The  Cabbage  is  well  worth  studying.  Some  people 
have  got  in  the  habit  of  sneering  at  cabbage  growers. 
It  is  a  fact,  that  a  man  who  cannot  read  or  write  will 
sometimes  beat  the  best  of  us  in  growing  cabbages.  His 
success,  however,  is  not  due  to  his  ignorance.  You  will 
find  he  has  thoroughly  studied  the  wants  of  the  vegetable. 
If  he  knows  nothing  else  he  knows  how  to  grow  cabbages. 

Cabbages  require  preeminently  rich  land.  It  must  be 
preternaturally  rich.  People  say  that  land  which  will 
produce  corn  will  produce  cabbages.  I  doubt  it.  Land 
may  be  rich  enough  for  a  good  crop  of  corn  that  is  not 
rich  enough  to  produce  even  a  fair  crop  of  cabbages.  The 
reason  of  this  probability  is,  that  corn  is  a  natural  crop, 
while  the  cabbage  is  an  artificial  production.  We  do  not 
raise  cabbages  for  seed  as  we  do  corn.  We  raise  it  for 
the  heads  or  tender  leaves  or  sprouts.  Naturally  it  runs 
up  to  seed  the  first  year,  but  this  is  not  what  we  want. 
We  want  a  cabbage  that  will  grow  rapidly  and  produce  a 
large  mass  of  leaves  good  for  food.  For  this  purpose  we 
require  a  well-trained,  or  cultivated  variety,  having  this 
artificial  character  thoroughly  established.  We  also  want, 
and  must  have,  very  rich  land. 

Early  cabbages  require  richer  land  than  the  late  varie- 
ties. But  you  can  grow  twice  as  many  plants  on  an  acre. 
I  know  one  gentleman  who  makes  a  great  deal  of  money 


THE   CABBAGES.  43 

from  his  crop  of  early  cabbages.  He  plants  about  three 
acres  every  year,  some  of  it  on  land  which  had  been  in 
other  crops  the  previous  year,  and  some  of  it  on  land 
which  has  grown  cabbages  for  several  years.  His  crop 
on  the  old  land  is  earlier  and  better  than  that  on  the  new 
soil.  No  matter  how  heavily  he  manures  the  new  land, 
he  cannot  make  it  as  productive  the  first  year  as  the  old 
piece  ;  the  reason  is,  that  the  manure  can  not  be  so  thor- 
oughly worked  into  the  soil  the  first  year.  This  is  a 
point  of  great  importance  in  horticulture.  We  not  only 
need  to  manure  our  land  heavily,  but  to  thoroughly  mix 
the  manure  with  the  soil. 

EARLY  CABBAGE  PLANTS. 

Early  cabbages  bring  a  high  price,  and  it  will  pay  to 
take  extra  pains  with  them.  There  are  two  ways  of 
raising  early  cabbages,  one  is  by  setting  out  plants  which 
were  started  the  autumn  previous  and  wintered  over  in 
cold  frames.  The  other  plan  is  by  sowing  the  seed  in  a 
hot-bed  or  greenhouse  early  in  the  spring,  and  when 
the  plants  are  large  enough  and  have  been  properly 
hardened  off,  set  them  out  in  the  field  or  garden.  It 
is  possible  to  get  the  cabbages  just  as  early  from  the 
spring-sown  plants  as  from  those  sown  in  autumn. 
As  to  which  is  best  depends  very  much  on  circumstances. 
Kecent  practice  seems  to  be  tending  more  and  more  to- 
ward the  use  of  spring-sown  plants. 

Where  only  a  few  plants  are  needed  for  home  use,  a 
good  plan  is  to  sow  a  little  seed  in  a  box  in  the  house. 
After  the  plants  are  up  you  must  give  them  as  much  sun 
as  possible,  and  be  careful  not  to  keep  them  in  too  warm 
a  room.  During  warm  days  the  box  may  be  placed  out  of 
doors  in  the  sun,  in  a  spot  sheltered  from  the  prevailing 
wind.  Cabbages  are  hardy,  and  when  raised  in  a  hot-bed 
or  in  the  house  they  are  much  more  likely  to  be  kept  too 


44  GAKDENING   FOK   YOUNG  AND   OLD. 

warm  than  too  cool.  The  great  point  is  to  give  them 
plenty  of  sun  and  plenty  of  room  ;  if  they  are  too  thick 
in  the  box  they  must  be  transplanted  or  pricked  out  into 
another  box.  The  oftener  they  are  transplanted,  and 
the  more  room  you  give  them,  the  stronger  and  healthier 
they  become.  It  is  very  desirable  to  have  strong,  stocky 
plants.  As  soon  as  the  land  is  dry  enough  to  work 
properly,  and  the  plants  are  large  enough  and  strong 
enough  to  set  out,  prepare  the  land  by  spading  or  plow- 
ing, and  harrow  or  rake  until  it  is  fine  and  mellow.  Then 
set  your  line  and  mark  out  the  land  in  rows  two  and  a 
half  feet  apart,  and  with  a  dibble  set  the  plants  twenty 
inches  to  two  feet  apart  in  the  row. 

The  best  and  earliest  variety  for  market  is  the  true 
Jersey  Wakefield,  but  for  home  use  the  Early  York  is 
still  preferred  by  many.  In  Western  New  York  we  get 
the  Jersey  Wakefield  large  enough  for  market  about  the 
first  of  July — sometimes  a  little  earlier,  and  sometimes 
a  little  later,  according  to  the  season. 

SECOND   EAELY  CABBAGES. 

For  second  early  cabbage  we  have  several  excellent 
varieties.  Henderson's  Summer  is  a  favorite  variety  with 
market  gardeners.  It  makes  a  large  head  and  looks  very 
attractive.  So  far  as  my  experience  goes,  however,  it  is  not 
of  the  highest  quality,  and  for  my  own  use  I  should 
prefer  Winningstadt,  or  Fottler's  Drumhead. 

The  method  of  cultivation  of  these  second  early  cab- 
bages is  the  same  as  for  the  early,  except  that  the  land 
need  not  be  quite  so  rich,  and  the  plants  should  be  set  a 
little  farther  apart.  For  late  summer  or  early  autumn 
cabbages  it  is  not  necessary  to  raise  the  plants  in  a  hot-bed. 
Sow  the  seeds  in  a  warm,  sheltered  spot  in  the  garden,  as 
soon  as  the  ground  can  be  got  into  good  condition.  Drill 
in  the  seed  in  rows  fifteen  inches  apart,  and  drop  about 


THE   CABBAGES.  45 

four  seeds  to  each  inch  of  row.  We  generally  sow  a  lit- 
tle thicker  than  this  in  hopes  that  the  plants  will  have  a 
better  chance  of  escaping  the  ravages  of  the  little  black 
beetle  which  is  almost  certain  to  attack  them.  Frequent 
hoeing  is  particularly  desirable,  as  it  not  only  kills  weeds 
and  favors  the  growth  of  the  plants,  but  it  has  a  ten- 
dency to  frighten  away  the  black  beetle.  For  late  au- 
tumn or  winter  cabbages  we  sow  our  cabbage  seed  from 
the  middle  of  May  until  the  first  week  in  June.  The 
larger  and  later  the  variety  the  earlier  should  the  seed  be 
sown.  The  summer  and  early  autumn  varieties,  such  as 
the  Winningstadt,  Henderson's  Summer,  Fottler's,  Stone 
Mason,  and  Harris'  Short  Stem  Drumhead  can  be  changed 
into  winter  cabbages  by  sowing  the  seed  from  the  last 
week  in  May  until  the  first  week  in  June.  I  have  had  a 
good  crop  of  most  of  these  varieties  when  the  plants  were 
set  out  as  late  as  the  middle  of  June ;  as  a  rule,  how- 
ever, it  is  better  to  plant  earlier. 

On  my  own  farm,  where  we  raise  cabbage  plants  in 
very  large  quantities,  we  drill  the  seed  in  rows  twenty-one 
inches  apart,  and  keep  the  crop  clean  by  the  frequent 
use  of  the  horse-hoe.  You  need  the  cleanest,  richest  and 
best  land,  and  in  addition  to  this,  sow  four  hundred 
pounds  of  superphosphate  per  acre.  With  good  clean 
land,  a  dressing  of  superphosphate  and  the  frequent  use 
of  the  horse-hoe  between  the  rows,  it  is  a  very  easy  mat- 
ter to  raise  cabbage  plants.  You  can  grow  from  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  to  two  hundred  thousand 
good  cabbage  plants  to  the  acre.  When  much  thicker 
than  this,  the  plants  are  not  so  stocky  as  they  should  be. 
The  price  paid  for  good  cabbage  plants  is  from  two  dol- 
lars to  three  dollars  per  thousand. 

LATE   CABBAGES. 

For  the  main  crop  of  winter  cabbages,  the  large  late 
Flat  Dutch  or  Premium  Flat  Dutch,  or,  if  the  land  is 


46  GARDENING   FOE  YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

rich  enough,  the  Mammoth  Marblehead  are  all  excellent 
varieties.  I  have  said  that  late  cabbages  do  not  require 
such  rich  land  as  the  early.  This  is  true,  and  yet  it  seems 
to  be  a  fact  that  when  you  sow  the  early  varieties  late  in 
the  season,  for  the  purpose  of  using  them  for  a  late  fall  or 
winter  crop,  these  smaller  and  earlier  varieties  will  do 
better  on  moderately  rich  or  comparatively  poor  soil, 


Fig.   2. — SAVOY   CABBAGE. 

than  the  larger  and  later  varieties.  I  know  some  experi- 
enced cabbage  growers  who  raise  the  Winningstadt  for 
the  main  crop,  because  they  find  that  it  is  sure  to  head, 
while,  from  want  of  plenty  of  manure,  they  can  not  grow 
the  larger  and  later  varieties.  When  late  cabbages  are 
raised  as  a  field  crop,  a  good  plan  is,  to  mark  out  the  land 
three  feet  apart  each  way,  and  set  out  a  plant  where  the 
lines  cross.  This  gives  four  thousand  eight  hundred  and 


THE   CAULIFLOWER.  4? 

forty  plants  to  the  acre.  The  advantage  of  the  plan  is, 
that  you  can  cultivate  the  ground  both  ways  between  the 
plants  with  a  horse-hoe,  and  the  labor  of  tending  the 
crop  is  very  slight. 

SAVOY  CABBAGES. 

The  Savoy  Cabbages  are  so  unlike  ordinary  cabbages 
that  some  works  place  them  under  a  separate  head,  as 
Savoys.  In  the  Savoys  the  leaves  are  strongly  wrinkled, 
or  blistered,  and  the  heads  are  never  very  solid.  In  tex- 
ture and  flavor  they  are  more  like  a  cauliflower  than  like 
the  ordinary  winter  cabbages,  being  very  tender  and  mar- 
row-like, and  most  delicious  to  those  who  like  cabbages 
at  all.  They  are  among  the  hardiest  of  cabbages,  and 
may  be  left  out  until  the  last.  Their  cultivation  is  the 
same  as  that  of  other  late  varieties. 


THE    CAULIFLOWER. 

The  cultivation  of  the  Cauliflower  is  very  similar  to 
that  required  for  the  cabbage.  The  method  of  raising  the 
plants  is  the  same;  the  time  and  manner  of  setting 
out  is  the  same;  the  distance  apart  is  the  same,  as  is  the 
method  of  preparing  and  enriching  the  land.  The  only 
difference  is,  that  the  cauliflower,  being  a  little  more  del- 
icate, every  operation  must  be  conducted  with  greater 
care  and  thoroughness.  The  profits  of  the  crop  are  very 
large,  and  it  will  pay  those  who  raise  it  to  spare  no  pains 
that  will  insure  success. 

There  was  a  time  when  it  was  thought  that  the  Ameri- 
can climate  was  particularly  unsuited  to  the  growth  of 
the  cauliflower;  such,  however,  is  not  the  case.  We  are 
now  satisfied  that  as  good  cauliflowers  can  be  grown  here 
as  in  any  other  country.  Our  hot  sun,  which  was  sup- 
posed to  render  the  cultivation  difficult,  if  not  impossi- 


48  GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

ble,  is,  in  point  of  fact,  a  great  advantage  ;  but  we  must 
make  other  things  correspond.  If  the  soil  is  dry,  poor, 
hard,  cloddy  and  weedy,  the  hot  sun  may  be  an  injury ; 
it  will  wither  up  the  cauliflowers  and  the  careless  culti- 
vator will  be  very  apt  to  blame  the  sun.  But  if  your 
land  is  well  drained,  moist,  rich,  mellow,  deeply  and 
thoroughly  cultivated  and  free  from  weeds  ;  if  you  have 
good  strong  cauliflower  plants  of  the  right  variety,  and 
set  out  at  the  right  time  ;  if  the  roots  have  got  firm  hold 
of  the  soil  and  have  access  to  abundance  of  food  and 
water,  let  the  sun  shine,  the  leaves  of  the  plant  will 
glory  in  the  abundant  sun  ;  and  if  they  wilt  a  little  dur- 
ing the  fierce  heat  of  the  day,  the  next  morning  will  find 
them  bright  and  fresh  and  full  of  vigor. 

I  would  advise  no  one  to  go  extensively  into  the  culti- 
vation of  cauliflowers  before  they  have  had  some  experi- 
ence ;  better  raise  a  few  in  the  garden  and  make  special 
efforts  to  grow  them  to  perfection.  When  you  have 
learned  the  secret  of  success,  extend  their  cultivation  to 
the  field  and  market  garden.  The  standard  varieties  of 
cauliflower  are  Early  Paris,  Erfurt  Earliest  Dwarf,  Large 
Lenormand  and  Walcheren.  The  former  two  are  early 
varieties,  and  the  last  two  are  larger  and  later.  What  we 
have  said  in  regard  to  the  planting  of  early  and  late  vari- 
eties of  cabbage,  is  equally  true  in  regard  to  the  planting 
of  early  and  late  varieties  of  cauliflower.  To  have  early 
cauliflowers,  of  course,  you  must  sow  early  varieties,  but 
for  a  late  crop,  it  is  not  absolutely  necessary  to  have  late 
varieties.  If  late  kinds  are  planted  early  and  every  thing 
goes  well,  they  will  give  you  a  larger,  handsomer,  and 
more  profitable  crop;  but  it  often  happens,  where  the  soil 
and  season  are  not  propitious,  that  the  early  varieties 
planted  late  will  give  the  best  results.  In  other  words, 
if  you  can  grow  a  large  crop  of  the  late  varieties  do  so. 
But  if  you  have  any  reason  to  anticipate  a  failure,  you 
had  better  be  content  with  raising  a  crop  of  the  early  and 


CARROTS.  49 

smaller  varieties  planted  late.  You  can  sometimes  grow 
a  good  crop  of  Early  Paris  or  Erfurt  Earliest  Dwarf, 
when  you  can  not  get  a  single  head  of  Large  Lenormand 
or  Walcheren. 

Except  for  the  earliest  crop,  it  is  not  necessary  to  raise 
the  plants  in  a  hot-bed.  Sow,  out  of  doors,  on  the  rich- 
est, warmest,  and  mellowest  soil  you  have,  in  rows  fifteen 
inches  apart,  as  directed  for  cabbage  seed.  The  late  varie- 
ties should  be  sown  just  as  early  as  the  ground  is  in  good 
working  condition.  The  early  varieties,  when  intended 
for  a  late  crop,  need  not  be  sown  before  the  middle  of 
May,  and  they  will  often  do  well  if  not  sown  until  the 
first  of  June.  Keep  the  plants  well  hoed.  If  too  thick, 
prick  them  out  into  a  border  of  rich,  moist  land,  in  rows 
a  foot  apart,  and  at  two  or  three  inches  distant  in  the 
row.  Let  them  stay  there  until  wanted,  they  will  make 
fine,  strong,  stocky  plants,  and  well  repay  you  for  the 
extra  labor  of  pricking  out. 


CARROTS. 

The  Carrot  is  not  a  popular  crop.  Horses  are  very 
fond  of  carrots,  but  then  they  never  had  to  weed  them. 
If  they  had  been  obliged  to  get  on  their  hands  and  knees, 
so  to  speak,  with  the  hot  sun  on  their  backs,  and  had  to 
weed  and  thin  carrots,  when  Tom  and  Dick  were  gone  a 
fishing,  they  would  have  been  satisfied  with  dry  corn  and 
hay.  Boys  ought  to  know  better.  If  we  want  a  good 
thing,  we  have  got  to  work  for  it.  The  horse,  I  have  no 
doubt,  would  go  without  the  carrots  rather  than  per- 
form the  necessary  work  of  raising  them.  But  we  want 
horses  to  work  for  our  pleasure,  and  a  good  horse  that 
behaves  himself,  and  does  cheerfully  all  that  we  ask  of 
him,  is  entitled  to  an  occasional  feed  of  fresh  juicy  car- 
rots to  mix  with  his  dry  hay  and  corn.  But  I  am  sure 
3 


50  GARDENING   FOE   YOUNG  AND   OLD. 

our  bright  American  boys  will  soon  learn  to  make  the 
horse  do  nine-tenths  of  the  work  of  raising  the  carrots. 
Just  think  of  it !  When  I  was  a  boy,  we  used  to  make  a 
bed  about  fiye  feet  wide,  trim  it  off  at  the  edges  with  a 
sharp  spade,  throw  the  soil  on  top  from  the  alleys,  rake 
the  bed,  and  then  sow  the  carrot  seed  broadcast,  and 
make  the  bed  smooth  by  patting  it  with  the  back  of  the 
spade.  These  beds  of  carrots,  onions,  etc.,  looked  very 
neat  and  trim  when  first  made,  but  oh  !  the  labor  of 
weeding  them  !  By  and  by  we  made  a  wonderful  dis- 
covery, we  found  that  carrots,  onions,  etc.,  could  be 
sown  in  rows  two  or  three  inches  apart,  where  we  could 
dig  up  the  weeds  with  a  knife  or  our  fingers.  Gradually 
the  rows  were  made  wider  apart,  and  now  almost  every 
one  drills  in  his  carrots,  onions,  parsnips,  etc.,  in  rows 
wide  enough  apart,  to  admit  the  use  of  a  good  American 
hoe. 

IMPROVED   CARROT  GROWING. 

I  want  to  do  still  better.  I  want  the  horse  to  do  all  of 
the  hoeing.  I  sow  my  carrots  in  rows  twenty-one  inches 
apart,  and  cultivate  them  with  a  horse-hoe.  If  you  have 
a  steady  horse  and  a  good  cultivator,  and  will  give  your 
mind  to  the  work,  you  can  run  very  close  to  the  rows,  and 
leave  very  little  to  be  done  in  the  way  of  hand- weeding 
or  hoeing.  In  fact,  if  you  will  run  the  cultivator  between 
the  rows  once  a  week  after  the  plants  get  fairly  started, 
they  will 'grow  so  rapidly  that  they  will  smother  out  or 
hold  in  check  nearly  all  the  weeds.  I  tell  my  boys  that 
cultivating  between  such  narrow  rows  is  an  education. 
It  is  good  mental  discipline,  for  they  must  keep  their 
mind  constantly  fixed  on  their  work. 

Much  of  the  success  of  the  plan,  however,  will  depend 
upon  having  the  land  not  only  rich,  but  in  the  best 
mechanical  condition.  Fortunately  our  inventors  and 
manufacturers  are  fully  abreast  of  the  times.  We  have  a 


CARROTS.  51 

good  gang-plow,  with  bright  steel  mould-boards,  that 
will  turn  over  three  furrows  at  a  time,  and  leave  the 
land  almost  smooth  and  level.  Then  we  have  a  harrow 
that  will  cut  the  clods  to  pieces,  and  still  further  smooth 
and  mellow  the  land.  After  that,  we  make  use  of  a 
smoothing  harrow.  This,  with  a  roller  passed  over  the 
land  two  or  three  times,  first  the  harrow  and  then  the 
roller,  I  formerly  thought  left  the  land  in  as  good  shape 
as  we  could  hope  to  get  it  by  the  use  of  horse-implements, 
and  that  anything  further  in  the  way  of  fining  or  smooth- 
ing the  surface  soil  must  be  done  with  a  steel  rake.  But 
no,  we  have  now  a  revolving  harrow  and  leveler,  that  will 
leave  the  land  as  smooth  and  fine  as  it  can  be  made  with 
a  steel  rake,  at  one-tenth  of  the  expense.  With  these 
implements,  a  garden  line,  a  marker,  and  a  good  drill, 
field-gardening  is  a  much  more  pleasant  and  profitable 
business  than  ever  before  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
There  is  one  thing  which  our  drill  makers  need  to  do, 
which  is  to  give  us  a  bright,  steel  coulter  for  depositing 
the  seed  in  the  row.  The  various  seed  drills  have  rough 
cast-iron  coulters  two  inches  wide,  and  are  admirably 
adapted  for  doing  poor  work.  The  coulter  catches  every 
bit  of  stra\v,  or  root,  or  grass,  or  rubbish  it  comes  in  con- 
tact with.  The  seeds  are  scattered  in  a  wide  row.  In- 
stead of  this  we  want  a  narrow,  bright  steel  coulter  that 
would  run  easily  and  smoothly  through  the  soil,  and  de- 
posit the  seed  in  a  row  not  over  a  quarter  of  an  inch 
wide.  It  would  not  only  do  better  work,  especially  when 
the  land  was  damp  and  sticky,  but  as  can  be  readily  seen, 
these  narrow  drills  would  leave  very  much  less  space  for 
hand  weeding.  In  fact  a  skillful  boy,  with  the  right  kind 
of  hoe,  could  run  so  close  to  this  narrow  row  that  he 
would  not  leave  one  weed  in  a  thousand  that  would  have 
to  be  pulled  out  with  the  fingers.  Another  thing  in  re- 
gard to  the  culture  of  carrots  which  I  think  is  important : 
you  know  the  time  was,  when  onion  growers  thought  it 


52  GARDENING   FOE   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

was  necessary  to  thin  out  the  onions,  leaving  only  one 
plant  every  three  or  four  inches  ;  but  we  have  discovered 
that  the  onion  will  bear  crowding.  If  three  or  four 
onions  be  left  in  a  bunch,  they  will  push  each  other  up- 
wards and  downwards,  lengthwise  and  sidewise,  and  you 
will  get  three  or  four  good  sized  onions  instead  of  one 
large  overgrown  one  which  no  one  wants.  And  so  it  is 
with  carrots.  Such  varieties  as  the  Early  Short  Horn  or 
the  Half  Long  will  bear  a  good  deal  of  crowding.  I  have 
often  left  four  or  five  carrots  in  a  bunch  and  had  them 
all  grow  to  good  size.  They  push  each  other  sidewise  in 
the  loose,  well  cultivated  soil.  Leaving  them  thick  in 
this  way  not  only  saves  the  unpleasant  labor  of  thinning 
with  the  fingers,  but  this  thick  crop  of  carrots  keeps 
down  the  weeds  in  the  row  and  saves  much  labor  in 
weeding. 

The  true  plan  is,  to  sow  the  carrots  pretty  thick,  drop- 
ping, say  two  or  three  seeds  to  each  inch  of  row,  and  in- 
stead of  thinning  them  out  by  hand,  as  is  usually  done, 
I  would  push  or  pull  a  narrow  hoe  through  them  and 
thus  leave  a  bunch  of  plants  every  five  or  six  inches  in 
the  row  ;  each  bunch  may  have  four  or  five  carrots,  which 
will  grow  strong  enough  to  keep  down  the  weeds  which 
may  be  left  in  the  bunch,  and  the  entire  work  of  weed- 
ing can  be  done  with  a  cultivator  and  hoe.  The  large 
long  varieties  of  carrots,  like  the  Long  Orange  and 
White  Belgian,  can  not  be  left  so  thick  in  the  bunches, 
and  for  this  reason,  I  prefer  to  grow  the  Half  Long  vari- 
ety ;  it  is  more  nutritious  and  is  much  more  easily  har- 
vested. 

CELERY. 

Celery  is  a  crop  which  should  be  largely  grown  in  the 
field-garden.  It  is  essentially  a  farm  crop,  just  as  much 
so  as  cabbage.  I  mean  by  this  that  it  requires  a  good 


CELERY.  53 

deal  of  space,  and  should  be  grown  on  the  farm  where 
land  is  comparatively  cheap,  rather  than  in  suburban 
market  gardens,  where  land  is  worth  from  five  hundred 
dollars  to  five  thousand  dollars  an  acre.  Vegetables 
which  must  be  marketed  fresh  every  morning,  must  be 
grown  near  the  market,  but  this  is  not  necessarily  the 
case  with  Celery. 

When  I  was  a  boy  it  was  quite  an  affair  to  grow  cel- 
ery. We  dug  trenches  and  heavily  manured  the  bottom, 
put  three  or  four  inches  of  soil  on  top  of  the  manure, 
and  set  a  single  row  of  plants  six  or  eight  inches  apart  in 
the  row.  The  work  was  done  with  a  spade,  and  celery 
was  a  costly  luxury.  Where  land  was  high,  we  sometimes, 
instead  of  planting  a  single  row,  made  the  trench  four  or 
five  feet  wide,  covered  the  bottom  with  manure,  put  on 
the  soil,  and  planted  four  or  five  rows  eight  or  ten  inches 
apart  in  this  wide  trench.  I  have  seen  a  good  crop 
raised  in  this  way,  but  it  is  a  great  deal  of  work  and  will 
not  pay.  The  truth  is,  that  celery  requires  a  great  deal 
of  moisture ;  it  needs  rich  land  too,  but  moisture  will,  to 
a  certain  extent,  take  the  place  of  manure.  If  you  can 
get  land  that  is  well  drained  and  moist  also,  that  is  the 
true  place  for  celery.  If  the  land  is  not  moist  you  must 
set  the  plants  farther  apart  in  the  rows.  For  early  cel- 
ery, of  which  comparatively  little  is  required  either  for 
home  use  or  market,  the  seed  must  be  sown  in  a  hot-bed 
or  in  a  box  in  the  house.  You  can  sow  the  seed  in  rows 
one  inch  apart  and  ten  or  twelve  seeds  to  each  inch  of 
row.  When  the  plants  begin  to  crowd  one  another,  dig 
them  up  and  prick  them  out  into  a  cold-frame  or  cooler 
hot-bed,  or  into  a  larger  box  in  the  house.  In  two  or 
three  weeks  they  will  probably  need  to  be  transplanted 
again  into  a  cold-frame  or  warm  border  out  of  doors;  set 
them  in  rows  wide  enough  apart  to  admit  the  use  of  a 
hoe,  keep  clean,  and  let  them  remain  until  wanted  to  set 
out. 


54  GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

For  the  main  crop,  the  seed  should  be  sown  in  a  warm 
sheltered  spot  as  early  in  the  spring  as  the  soil  is  in 
good  working  condition.  The  better  plan  is  to  prepare 
the  ground  the  previous  autumn,  and  the  more  manure 
you  can  work  into  it,  the  better.  Do  this  as  early  in  the 
fall  as  the  land  can  be  spared ;  this  will  give  the  weed 
seeds  in  the  manure  and  in  the  soil  a  chance  to  germi- 
nate. Work  the  ground  several  times,  for  the  more  you 
work  it,  the  more  weed  seeds  will  germinate  and  be  de- 
stroyed ;  this  is  very  important,  because  celery  seed  is 
slow  to  germinate  in  the  cold  soil  in  the  spring,  and  if 
the  land  is  full  of  weed  seeds,  they  will  start  long  before 
the  seeds  of  the  celery  and  cause  a  great  deal  of  trouble 
in  hoeing  and  weeding.  It  is  folly  to  endeavor  to  raise 
celery  plants  unless  the  land  is  very  rich,  and  is  kept 
scrupulously  clean.  If  the  land  has  been  carefully  pre- 
pared in  the  autumn,  I  would  not  plow  or  spade  it  in  the 
spring,  as  that  would  bring  up  the  cold  soil  to  the  surface. 
As  soon  as  the  frost  is  out  of  the  first  three  or  four  inches 
of  the  surface  soil,  hoe  the  bed  and  rake  it  with  a  steel 
rake,  and  make  it  fine  and  smooth.  Then  mark  rows  ten 
inches  apart,  and  sow  the  celery  seed  evenly  in  the  rows, 
depositing  ten  or  twelve  seeds  to  each  inch  of  row,  with  a 
radish  seed  every  three  or  four  inches  apart  in  the  row. 
The  radish  seed  will  germinate  quickly,  and  show  you 
where  the  rows  are,  and  enable  you  to  hoe  lightly  be- 
tween them,  long  before  the  celery  makes  its  appear- 
ance. The  great  point  is,  to  get  strong,  stocky  plants 
with  an  abundance  of  fine  roots.  For  this  purpose  it 
will  be  necessary,  not  only  to  keep  the  bed  very  clean, 
but  to  thin  out  the  plants  where  too  thick.  The  plants 
ought  to  be  not  less  than  an  inch  to  two  inches  apart  in 
the  row.  When  ready  to  transplant,  the  bed  should  be 
saturated  with  water,  and  the  right  way  to  do  this,  is  to 
take  a  fork  or  spade  and  thrust  it  down  deep  into  the  soil 
between  the  rows  and  below  the  roots  of  the  celery,  and 


CELERY.  55 

lifting  up  or  breaking  up  in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  the 
bed  full  of  cracks  and  holes.  In  this  manner  you  can  get 
several  barrels  of  water  upon,  or  rather  into,  a  small  bed. 
The  next  morning,  if  the  bed  has  been  thoroughly  satu- 
rated, the  plants  can  be  taken  up  with  all  their  roots, 
and  more  or  less  fine  soil  still  adhering  to  them. 

In  raising  celery  plants  on  a  large  scale,  I  find  it  de- 
sirable to  sow  the  seed  in  rows  twenty-one  inches  apart,  or 
far  enough  to  admit  the  use  of  a  horse-hoe.  This  not  only 
saves  much  labor  in  hoeing,  but  the  frequent  use  of  the 
horse-hoe  keeps  the  land  loose  and  mellow,  and  when 
you  wish  to  set  out  the  plants,  they  can  be  taken  up 
much  more  easily  and  with  a  large  mass  of  fine  roots, 
with  soil  adhering  to  them.  Before  commencing  to  fork 
up  the  plants,  we  run  a  narrow  cultivator  several  times 
between  the  rows  as  deep  as  we  can  get  it;  set  out  the 
plants  with  as  little  exposure  of  the  roots  to  the  air  as 
possible.  It  does  not  hurt  a  plant  to  wilt  when  the  wilt- 
ing is  caused  merely  by  the  evaporation  of  water  through 
the  leaves,  but  it  is  a  serious  injury  to  let  the  roots  shrivel 
up  from  exposure  to  our  hot  sun  and  drying  winds. 

SETTING  OUT  THE  PLANTS. 

Before  transplanting,  however,  it  is  necessary  to  get 
trenches  ready.  In  point  of  fact,  the  trenches  are  not 
trenches  at  all,  according  to  the  old  meaning  of  the 
term.  The  way  I  have  done  the  work  on  my  own  farm 
is  to  get  the  land  ready  by  plowing  and  harrowing  until 
it  is  quite  smooth  and  mellow.  I  then  take  a  marker 
with  teeth  four  feet  apart,  set  a  line  for  the  first  row  and 
run  the  marker  along  the  line.  After  the  land  is  all 
marked  out  into  rows  four  feet  apart,  take  a  double 
mould-board  plow,  with  two  horses,  and  run  the  plow 
along  the  row  made  by  the  marker.  If  you  have  not  a 
double  mould-board  plow,  the  work  can  be  done  equally 


56  GARDENING   FOB   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

well  with  an  ordinary  plow ;  except  that  it  is  necessary 
to  go  twice  in  a  row,  up  and  down,  instead  of  once.  You 
will  see  that  this  is  simply  making  what  are  called  dead 
furrows,  every  four  feet. 

When  the  work  is  done,  draw  out  some  of  the  richest, 
most  thoroughly  rotted  manure  you  can  find  and  spread 
in  the  rows,  or  dead-furrows.  Spread  it  evenly  and  knock 
it  to  pieces  thoroughly  with  a  hoe  or  potato  hook,  mixing 
more  or  less  soil  with  it,  getting  it,  at  any  rate,  well 
broken  to  pieces.  Then  with  a  plow  throw  the  soil  back 
again  into  the  furrow;  then  roll  and  hirrow  and  roll 
again,  until  you  have  made  the  soil  as  fine  as  possible. 
Then  take  your  four-foot  marker  again,  set  the  line  exactly 
where  it  was  in  the  first  place,  and  run  the  marker  along 
the  line  just  over  where  the  manure  has  been  put.  If 
the  work  has  been  well  done,  you  will  have  five  or  six 
inches  of  good  mellow  soil  in  which  to  set  out  your  cel- 
ery plants.  I  set  my  plants  a  foot  apart  in  the  row  ;  as 
the  rows  are  four  feet  apart  we  get  ten  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  ninety  plants  to  the  acre. 

Of  course  plants  can  be  grown  much  closer  than  this. 
The  rows  can  be  made  three  feet  apart  and  the  plants  set 
six  inches  apart  in  the  row.  This  would  give  twenty- 
nine  thousand  and  forty  plants  to  the  acre,  and  if  the  land 
is  rich  enough,  moist  enough  and  clean  enough,  and  you 
have  the  best  plants,  and  give  them  the  best  of  treatment, 
and  the  season  is  every  way  favorable,  you  can  get  just  as 
good  celery  from  the  thicker  planting  as  from  the  thin. 
But  my  land  is  simply  ordinary  farm  land  and  an  acre  or 
two  more  or  less,  provided  it  will  save  labor,  and  insure  a 
crop  in  an  unfavorable  as  well  as  a  favorable  season,  does 
not  count.  Certainly  I  would  advise  any  farm  boy,  whose 
father  will  furnish  the  land  rent  free,  for  a  given  num- 
ber of  celery  plants,  not  to  make  the  rows  too  near,  or 
set  out  the  plants  too  close  in  the  rows. 

Some  of  the  old  market  gardeners  may  criticise  me  for 


CELERY.  57 

recommending  such,  thin  planting,  but  I  know  what  I 
know.  I  know  that  their  land,  which  has  been  in  gar- 
den culture  for  many  years,  is  in  a  very  different  condi- 
tion from  our  very  best  farm  land,  and  it  will  be  far  bet- 
ter the  first  year  or  two,  when  trying  to  raise  garden 
crops  on  farm  land,  not  to  plant  too  thickly. 

In  setting  out  the  celery  plants,  select  damp  weather 
if  possible,  but  a  damp  or  rainy  day  is  not  half  so  neces- 
sary as  a  finely  worked,  mellow  and  moist  soil.  If  the 
ground  is  dry  and  cloddy,  so  that  the  dry  lumps  of  earth 
will  tumble  into  the  hole  made  by  the  dibble,  you  had 
better  let  the  plants  stay  where  they  are,  and  go  to  work 
with  a  roller  and  harrow  until  you  have  made  the  soil 
fine  and  mellow.  I  know  that  this  can  be  done,  and  it  is 
sometimes  necessary  to  go  over  the  land  half  a  dozen 
times  or  more  with  a  roller  and  harrow.  I  put  one  team 
to  the  roller,  and  a  three-horse  team  to  a  Smoothing  Har- 
row. Having  the  boy  ride  on  the  harrow  so  as  to  press 
it  into  the  soil,  let  him  go  ahead  and  stir  up  the  soil, 
bringing  the  lumps  to  the  surface.  The  roller  follows  and 
crushes  the  surface;  then  go  over  it  again,  going  round 
and  round  the  lumpy  piece  until  every  lump  is  broken  up 
fine.  Even  a  very  light  shower  will  make  such  a  well- 
worked  soil  moist  enough  to  allow  the  plants  to  be  set 
out,  and  if  we  do  not  have  any  shower,  the  moisture  will 
in  time  come  up  from  the  subsoil  and  make  the  ground 
moist  enough  to  insure  the  safety  of  the  plants.  A  re- 
cently transplanted  row  of  celery  often  presents  a  sorry 
appearance  in  our  dry  climate.  But  do  not  be  discour- 
aged. If  the  roots  and  the  crowns  of  the  plants  are  alive 
they  will  in  time  start  into  growth.  If  the  plants  were 
set  out  during  a  rain,  and  the  surface  of  the  soil  after- 
wards bakes  or  becomes  hard,  the  crust  should  be  broken 
up  fine  with  a  hoe.  An  inch  or  two  of  dry,  loose  earth 
on  the  surface  checks  evaporation  and  keeps  the  soil 
moist  underneath  where  the  roots  are.  Always  remem- 


58  GARDENING   FOE   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

ber  this,  as  it  is  very  important.  A  dry  surface,  if  the 
soil  is  loose  and  fine,  is  a  good  thing,  provided  there  is 
sufficient  moisture  in  the  soil  below,  around  the  roots. 

As  the  celery  grows,  keep  the  ground  well  cultivated 
and  hoed;  and  this  is  all  that  need  be  done  until  the 
plants  have  nearly  attained  their  growth.  The  earth  is 
then  drawn  round  the  plants  in  order  to  blanch  the 
stalks.  You  will  soon  learn  how  to  do  this.  It  is  neces- 
sary to  gather  up  the  loose  and  straggling  stalks,  and 
press  the  whole  plant  firmly  together  with  the  hand  in 
order  to  prevent  the  soil  falling  into  the  center  or 
"  heart"  of  the  plant  between  the  stalks.  Draw  the  soil 
around  the  plant,  fully  up  to  the  lower  leaves,  and  if  the 
weather  is  fine  and  the  plants  continue  to  grow,  earth 
them  up  again. 

^STORING   FOR  WINTER. 

There  are  several  plans  for  keeping  celery  during  the 
winter.  My  own  method  is  to  dig  a  trench  in  dry, 
sandy  land,  a  foot  wide,  and  deep  enough  to  hold  the 
plants.  In  this  set  the  plants  upright,  just  as  they  grew, 
only  putting  them  close  together  crosswise  of  the  trench. 
The  more  soil  there  is  left  adhering  to  the  roots  the  bet- 
ter. It  is  also  desirable  and  certainly  much  more  pleasant, 
to  do  the  work  when  the  soil  and  plants  are  dry.  But 
as  we  wish  to  let  the  celery  keep  on  growing  as  long  as 
the  weather  will  allow,  it  is  not  always  that  we  can 
find  a  pleasant  day  so  late  in  the  season  in  which  to  se- 
cure our  celery  crop.  We  have  to  do  the  best  we  can. 
As  before  said,  it  is  desirable  to  put  up  the  plants  when 
dry,  but  if  the  work  is  not  done  until  just  before  winter 
is  about  to  set  in,  there  is  not  much  danger  that  the 
celery  will  mould,  no  matter  how  wet  it  is  when  put  in 
the  trench. 

My  plan  is,  to  plow  the  earth  away  from  the  rows  of 


CELERY.  59 

celery  m  the  field;  for  this  we  use  a  plow  from  which 
the  mould-board  is  removed,  leaving  only  the  point  and 
the  land-side.  By  running  this  plow  on  the  side  of  the 
row,  with  the  point  below  the  roots,  the  soil  is  made  so 
loose  that  the  plants  can  be  pulled  with  great  ease  and 
rapidity.  We  drive  a  stone-boat  along  the  side  of  the 
row,  and  place  the  plants  upon  this,  and  take  them  to 
the  trench  where  they  are  to  be  placed  for  the  winter. 
The  stalks  and  leaves  are  straightened  out,  and  the  plants 
are  placed  as  thickly  as  they  will  stand  in  the  trench, 
and  it  will  not  in  the  least  hurt  the  celery  if  there  is  a 
little  fine  earth  put  between  each  layer  of  plants.  I  place 
a  strip  of  corn  stalks  or  straight  straw  lengthwise  along 
the  sides  of  the  trench  and  draw  the  soil  up  to  it.  We 
then  plow  two  or  three  furrows  on  each  side  of  the 
trench,  if  necessary  going  round  and  round  the  trench 
two  or  three  times,  until  the  soil  on  each  side  is  broken 
up  very  loose  and  fine  to  the  depth  of  eighteen  or  twenty 
inches,  and  three  or  four  feet  wide.  Such  a  loose  mellow 
soil  will  stand  the  severest  zero  weather  with  little  or  no 
freezing.  And  if  a  few  leaves  are  plowed  into  the  soil  or 
placed  on  top  of  the  trench,  there  is  no  danger  that  the 
celery  will  be  injured  by  the  frost.  If  the  work  is  well 
done,  there  will  be  little  danger  of  the  rain  getting  into 
the  trench;  but  to  avoid  all  risk,  we  sometimes  place  a 
board  lengthwise  of  the  trench,  on  top  of  the  celery,  and 
cover  it  with  leaves  or  straw,  with  three  or  four  inches  of 
straw  on  top.  The  plowing  round  and  round  the  trench 
several  times,  until  the  ground  is  made  very  mellow  and 
deep,  I  regard  as  very  essential,  for  it  enables  you  to  get 
out  the  celery  at  any  time  when  it  is  wanted  during  the 
winter. 

Another  plan  for  preserving  celery  for  winter  use,  is 
to  put  it  in  a  box  in  the  cellar  with  layers  of  earth  between 
the  plants,  placing  the  celery  in  the  box  upright  in  the 
same  way  we  recommended  placing  it  in  the  trench  out 


60  GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

doors.  Another  method  recommended  by  Mr.  Hender- 
son in  the  AMERICAN  AGRICULTURIST  is,  to  set  up 
boards  on  edge  in  the  cellar,  nine  inches  wide  and  as 
high  as  the  plants  are  tall.  A  few  inches  of  soil  being 
placed  at  the  bottom,  the  celery  is  set  in  this  board 
trench  the  same  as  in  that  in  the  ground.  At  nine 
inches  from  the  first,  other  boards  are  set  up  in  the  same 
manner,  and  so  on. 

In  regard  to  varieties,  I  have  had  the  best  success  with 
the  Dwarf  White  and  the  Dwarf  Crimson.  The  Boston 
Market  has  a  more  spreading  habit  and  throws  up  nu- 
merous side  shoots  or  suckers,  which,  when  well  grown 
and  blanched,  are  very  crisp  and  toothsome.  There  are 
those  who  still  prefer  the  larger  varieties  known  by  dif- 
ferent names,  such  as  Giant,  Superb,  Leviathan,  etc. 
Unquestionably  in  this  climate  the  dwarf  varieties,  as  a 
rule,  are  more  easily  grown  and  more  likely  to  give  satis- 
faction. 


CELERIAC,  OB  TURNIP-ROOTED  CELERY. 

Celeriac  is  a  variety  of  celery,  but  much  hardier,  and 
having  a  less  erect  growth,  the  plants  forming  a  bul- 
bous enlargement;  hence  the  name  Turnip-Rooted.  Its 
cultivation  is  extending  in  this  country,  and  when  well 
grown  it  is  certainly  a  delicious  vegetable.  We  have 
hardly  yet  learned  how  to  grow  it  to  perfection.  The 
cultivation  is  in  many  respects  similar  to  that  required 
for  celery,  but  it  is  not  necessary  to  have  the  rows  so  far 
apart,  as  no  earthing  up  is  required.  Set  out  the  plants 
in  rows  thirty  inches  apart,  and  a  foot  apart  in  the  row. 
The  land  can  not  be  too  rich  or  mellow,  or  the  cultiva- 
tion too  thorough.  The  plants  are  inclined  to  throw  up 
suckers.  These  should  be  removed  as  soon  as  they  start; 
otherwise  these  suckers  will  check  the  tendency  of  the 


CORN — SWEET   CORK. 


61 


plant  to  form  a  bulb.  This  is  perhaps  the  most  impor- 
tant point  to  be  observed  in  the  culture  of  celeriac.  It 
would  not  be  desirable  to  go  into  the  cultivation  of  cele- 
riac on  a  large  scale  until  one  has  had  some  experience, 


Fig.   3. — CELERIAO. 

but  it  is  a  crop  which  it  would  be  well  for  every  one  to 
raise  on  a  small  scale  until  he  gets  acquainted  with  its 
merits  and  uses. 


CORN— SWEET-COKK 

Corn  is  so  easy  to  grow  that  very  few  grow  it  to  per- 
fection. Seedsmen  get  more  scoldings  with  reference  to 
their  corn  than  about  any  other  seed.  Every  one  thinks 


62  GARDENING   FOR  YOUJSG   AKD   OLD. 

he  can  grow  it,  and  when  the  crop  fails,  we  naturally 
blame  the  person  who  sells  us  the  seed.  One  year  I  had 
a  very  choice  variety  of  corn  and  distributed  it  freely 
among  my  friends,  but  many  wrote  me  that  not  a  kernel 
of  it  grew.  I  never  felt  quite  sure  whether  they  did  not 
know  how  to  plant  the  corn,  or  whether  I  did  not  know 
how  to  save  the  seed.  The  truth  is,  if  you  get  a  very 
choice  variety  of  tender,  sweet  and  delicious  corn  to  be 
eaten  green,  it  is  a  very  difficult  matter  to  preserve  the 
seed  without  weakening  its  germinative  power;  and  even 
if  the  seed  is  as  good  as  we  can  hope  to  get  it,  sweet 
corn,  if  is  is  really  sweet  and  good,  can  not  safely  be 
planted  in  as  cold  and  damp  a  soil  as  common  field  corn. 
We  all  wish  to  get  sweet  corn  as  early  as  possible,  and 
it  is  worth  while  running  the  risk  of  losing  our  first 
planting,  in  order  to  occasionally  secure  a  few  dishes  of 
very  early  corn.  It  is  simply  the  loss  of  a  little  seed,  for 
if  it  fails  to  grow,  owing  to  the  soil  being  too  cold  and 
damp,  or  to  the  crop  being  destroyed  by  an  early  frost, 
the  soil  can  afterward  be  replanted  with  a  later  variety  of 
corn,  or  used  for  some  other  crop.  But  do  not  wait 
until  your  first  planting  is  lost  before  planting  again. 
Plant  a  few  hills  as  soon  as  the  ground  can  be  got  into 
good  working  condition,  and  a  few  days  later,  especially 
if  the  weather  is  warm  and  dry,  plant  a  few  more  hills, 
and  a  few  days  later  still  put  in  a  larger  quantity;  in  this 
way,  three  years  out  of  four,  you  will  be  pretty  certain  to 
secure  a  good  supply  of  this  most  delicious  and  popular 
American  vegetable. 

The  land  for  sweet  corn  should  be  prepared  in  the 
autumn,  and  the  surface  soil,  especially,  should  be  heavily 
manured.  In  the  fall  get  the  soil  all  ready  for  planting, 
and  in  the  spring  do  not  plow  or  spade  the  land,  but 
make  a  few  hills  by  drawing  the  surface  soil  together 
with  a  hoe.  For  early  corn  in  the  garden,  and  with 
dwarfish  varieties,  like  the  Early  Minnesota,  the  rows 


CORK — SWEET   CORtf.  63 

need  not  be  more  than  three  feet  apart,  or  the  hills  more 
than  eighteen  or  twenty  inches  apart  in  the  row.  Use 
seed  freely,  for  in  the  cold,  damp  soil,  much  of  it  may 
fail  to  grow.  I  would  plant  eight  or  ten  kernels  in  each 
hill,  and  if  they  all  grow,  pinch  off  (not  pull  up,)  all  but 
four  of  the  best  plants.  If  you  undertake  to  pull  up  the 
plants  you  will  be  apt  to  disturb  or  injure  those  which 
are  left  in  the  hill.  As  the  plants  grow,  draw  a  little 
fresh  earth  up  to  them,  and  if  you  have  reason  to  fear  a 
frost  some  night,  it  is  worth  while  to  take  pieces  of  news- 
paper, say  a  foot  square,  and  lay  them  over  the  hills  of 
corn,  putting  a  little  soil  on  each  corner  to  hold  them 
down.  The  next  morning  they  can  be  turned  back  and 
still  kept  by  the  side  of  the  hill,  weighted  with  a  little 
earth,  ready  for  use  the  next  night  if  necessary.  It  re- 
quires but  a  very  slight  covering  to  protect  plants  from 
frost,  but  it  will  not  do  to  let  the  covering  remain  on  all 
the  time,  as  they  need  exposure  to  the  sun. 

VARIETIES. 

The  later  varieties  of  corn,  such  as  Crosby's  Sugar, 
Russell's  Prolific,  and  Moore's  Early  Concord,  though  far 
sweeter  and  better,  do  not  need  so  much  care  as  we  have 
recommended  when  we  wish  to  secure  the  earliest  possi- 
ble dish  of  corn.  But  even  for  the  second  early  crop,  it 
will  pay  to  take  pains  in  the  preparation  of  the  soil, 
planting,  and  cultivation.  You  can  not  grow  good  sweet 
corn  as  easily  as  you  can  good  field  corn.  For  the  main 
crop,  Stowell's  Evergreen  is  one  of  the  most  popular  vari- 
eties; as  ordinarily  grown,  however,  it  has  ceased  to  be  ev- 
ergreen, it  13  simply  a  good  late  variety  of  sweet  corn. 
It  is  the  variety  generally  grown  for  the  canning  and 
evaporating  establishments,  and  the  growers  for  these 
are  particularly  anxious  to  get  a  strain  of  Stowell's  Ever- 
green corn,  which  has  ceased  to  be  evergreen,  and  which 


64  GARDENING   FOE   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

is  sure  to  mature  in  a  good  season.  Those  who  wish  so- 
called  "  Evergreen "  corn,  must  get  seed  of  this  variety 
which  has  been  grown  several  degrees  farther  south  than 
where  it  is  intended  to  plant  it. 

The  canning  establishments  engage  farmers  to  raise 
sweet  corn  for  them.  They  furnish  the  seed  and  agree 
to  pay  a  certain  price  per  ton  for  ears  of  corn  in  the  green 
state.  In  this  neighborhood  they  have  been  paying 
eight  dollars  per  ton  for  ears  with  the  husks  on.  Many 
farmers  think  it  does  not  pay  to  grow  it  for  less  than  ten 
dollars  per  ton.  Of  course  much  depends  on  the  yield 
per  acre.  On  ordinary  farm  land  with  ordinary  culture, 
the  yield  is  small,  and  the  expense  of  gathering  the  crop 
absorbs  nearly  all  the  profits;  but  with  a  good  crop,  the 
profit  at  ten  dollars  per  ton  is  entirely  satisfactory, 
especially  if  you  take  the  value  of  the  stalks  into  consid- 
eration. It  is  a  good  crop  to  commence  with  in  the  field- 
garden;  it  brings  in  a  little  ready  money  every  few  days 
at  a  season  when  we  are  quite  apt  to  need  it. 

POP-COKN. 

Pop-corn  is  a  small  variety  grown  exclusively  for  pop- 
ping. It  is  rarely  fed  to  animals;  though  I  am  not  sure 
that  if  we  could  invent  some  cheap  and  expeditious 
method  of  popping  it  on  a  large  scale,  it  would  not  pay 
well  in  many  cases  to  grow  this  corn  and  pop  it  for  young 
animals  or  those  which  are  sick.  A  little  pig  takes  very 
kindly  to  pop-corn,  after  it  is  popped,  and  I  have  no 
doubt  it  is  good  for  him,  and  if  any  of  the  boys  wish  to 
show  their  pigs  at  the  fair,  after  they  have  given  the  pig 
a  good  square  meal,  and  after  he  has  eaten  all  he  will, 
his  pigship  would  enjoy  a  dessert  of  pop-corn,  either 
plain  or  sweetened  with  molasses. 

The  cultivation  of  pop-corn  is  as  easy  and  simple  as 
that  of  ordinary  field  corn,  but  when  they  first  come  up, 


COKN-SALAD.  65 

the  plants  are  smaller  and  weaker,  and  for  this  reason 
it  is  desirable  to  plant  pop-corn  on  a  dry,  warm,  sandy 
soil.  The  kernels  are  very  small,  and  I  have  found  that 
in  planting,  one  is  apt  to  drop  too  many  seeds  in  the 
hill.  Pop-corn  may  be  planted  in  hills  three  feet  apart 
each  way,  and  the  land  cultivated  both  ways  with  a 
horse-hoe,  or  it  may  be  planted  in  rows  three  feet  apart, 
and  the  seed  drilled  in,  afterwards  thinning  out  the 
plants  to  six  or  eight  inches  apart  in  the  row.  Pop-corn 
needs  good  soil  and  clean  cultivation.  I  cut  my  crop 
with  a  reaper  and  tie  it  into  bundles  like  wheat;  set  the 
bundles  in  a  stook  in  the  field  until  well  cured,  and  if  too 
busy  to  husk  it  in  the  fall,  draw  in  the  bundles  and  put 
them  on  an  airy  scaffold  in  the  barn,  and  husk  out  the 
corn  at  my  leisure. 


COBN-SALAD. 

Some  might  think  that  Corn-salad  was  a  variety  of  corn 
grown  for  salad.  In  England  wheat  is  called  "  corn,"  and 
corn -salad  is  supposed  to  derive  its  name  from  the  fact 
that  the  plant  grows  among  winter  wheat.  It  is  a  very 
hardy  plant  and  will,  if  sown  in  the  fall,  usually  stand 
the  winter  and  will  start  to  grow  in  the  spring,  even 
earlier  than  spinach.  It  is  a  substitute,  to  some  extent, 
for  both  lettuce  and  spinach.  One  of  its  popular  names 
is  "Lamb's  Lettuce."  It  is  a  very  easily  raised  plant, 
and  is  a  favorite  salad  with  those  who  like  it.  The  cul- 
tivation is  very  simple.  For  spring  use,  sow  early  in 
September,  in  rows  fifteen  inches  apart,  dropping  the 
seeds  an  inch  apart  in  the  row.  Protect  the  plants 
in  winter  by  lightly  covering  them  with  straw  or 
litter.  When  used  as  a  substitute  for  spinach,  the  land 
cannot  be  made  too  rich.  For  summer,  sow  in  rows, 
fifteen  inches  apart,  as  early  as  the  ground  can  be  put 


60  GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG  AND   OLD, 

into  good  condition;  hoe,  and  thin  out  the  plants  to  two 
or  three  inches  apart;  gather  when  young  and  tender, 


Fig.  4.— CORN-SALAD. 

and  sow  another  bed  a  week  or  ten  days  later  for  succes- 
sion. The  seed  is  small,  and  should  not  he  covered  more 
than  half  an  inch  deep. 

CRESS,  OR  PEPPER-GRASS. 

Cress  is  very  nice  if  grown  rapidly,  and  is  gathered 
before  it  runs  to  seed.  It  should  have  very  rich  land, 
be  sown  in  rows  wide  enough  apart  to  admit  the  use  of  a 
hoe,  and  about  half  an  inch  apart  in  the  row.  Sow  as  early 
as  the  ground  can  be  worked  in  the  spring,  and  each 
week  afterwards  for  a  succession. 

WATER  CRESS. 

There  are  many  places  where  Water  Cress  could  be 
grown  as  a  market  crop  with  great  profit.  The  real  point 


CUCUMBERS.  67 

is,  to  get  low  land  which  can  be  drained  on  the  one  hand, 
and  flooded  on  the  other.  Ditches  may  be  dug  from  the 
main  stream,  two  or  three  feet  wide,  and  deep  enough  to 
allow  the  water  to  flow  in  to  the  depth  of  two  to  six  inch- 
es. In  these  ditches  sow  or  plant  the  water  cress.  For  your 
own  use,  cress  can  be  obtained  in  ample  abundance  by 
sowing  it  in  any  shallow  natural  stream.  A  convenient 
plan  is  to  scatter  a  little  cress  seed  on  the  surface  of  the 
water,  and  let  it  float  down  stream.  When  the  stream  is 
once  stocked  nothing  more  is  needed.  It  is  a  pity  that 
water  cress  is  not  better  known  and  more  generally  used, 
as  it  is  one  of  the  most  healthful  and  delicious  of  salads. 


CUCUMBERS. 

Cucumbers,  when  grown  in  a  hot-bed,  will  stand  a 
good  deal  of  heat,  and  their  successful  management  re- 
quires some  experience.  It  is  usual  to  plant  one  hill  of 
cucumbers  to  each  sash,  after  using  the  hot-bed  for  start- 
ing other  seeds  in  boxes,  which  can  be  removed  when  the 
cucumbers  require  more  room.  For  out-door  culture, 
early  plants  can  be  started  in  the  hot-bed  or  in  the  house; 
six  or  eight  seeds  can  be  sown  in  some  fine  mould  in  a 
three-inch  pot,  and  when  the  weather  has  become  set- 
tled, the  plants  can  be  carefully  turned  out  of  the  pot 
witli  all  the  soil  adhering  to  the  roots,  and  transferred  to 
a  well-prepared  hill  in  the  garden.  For  a  few  days,  the 
plants  should  be  covered  with  a  frame  or  bottomless  box 
having  a  piece  of  cotton  cloth  tacked  over  the  top. 
Before  the  plants  are  turned  out,  the  pots  should  be 
placed  in  a  vessel  containing  some  blood-warm  water, 
two  or  three  inches  deep,  and  allowed  to  remain  until  the 
ball  of  earth  is  thoroughly  saturated;  this  is  far  better 
than  watering  after  they  are  transplanted. 

Cucumbers  delight  in  a  warm,  rich,  mellow  soil.     For 


68  GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

field  culture,  a  good  plan  is  to  mark  off  the  ground  into 
rows,  four  feet  apart  each  way,  then  run  a  double  mould- 
board  plow  along  the  mark,  botli  ways.  Put  one  or  two 
good  forkfuls  of  well-rotted  manure  vhere  these  furrows 
cross  each  other;  then  with  a  hoe,  or  potato  hook,  break 
up  the  manure  very  fine,  and  work  it  into  the  soil.  Turn 
the  soil  back  again  on  top  of  the  manure  with  a  plow, 
going  on  both  sides  of  the  row  lengthwise  and  crosswise; 
follow  the  plow  with  a  roller,  going  both  ways  of  the 
rows.  By  doing  this,  the  hills  will  be  four  feet  apart 
each  way,  with  manure  underneath,  and  a  bed  of  rich, 
mellow  soil  for  the  seed.  I  find  it  desirable,  after  using 
the  roller,  to  go  over  the  piece  again  with  a  four-foot 
marker,,  both  ways,  as  this  insures  straight  rows.  Drop 
ten  or  twelve  seeds  in  each  hill,  and  after  the  plants  are 
well  up,  and  have  got  pretty  well  out  of  the  reach  of  the 
Striped -bug,  gradually  thin  them  out,  until  in  the  end, 
you  leave  only  four  of  the  strongest  plants  in  each  hill. 
The  after  cultivation  consists  simply  in  working  the  soil 
with  a  cultivator  or  one-horse  plow,  both  ways  between 
the  rows,  removing  all  weeds  from  the  hills  with  a  hoe, 
at  the  same  time  pulling  up  a  little  fresh  soil  around  the 
plants  if  necessary. 

Another  plan  is,  to  mark  off  the  land  into  rows  four 
or  five  feet  apart,  run  the  double  mould-board  plow  along 
the  mark,  spread  the  manure  in  the  furrow,  and  cover  it 
up  by  running  the  plow  on  both  sides  of  the  row;  then 
roll,  mark  the  land  again,  and  drill  in  the  seed  in  the 
mark  just  over  the  manure.  Some  may  think  it  unneces- 
sary to  go  over  the  land  the  second  time  with  the  marker, 
but  it  is  very  important  to  have  the  rows  straight,  as  any 
boy  will  find  when  he  undertakes  to  run  a  cultivator 
within  an  inch  of  the  plants  in  the  row.  In  drilling  in 
the  seed,  set  the  drill  to  drop  a  seed  each  two  or  three 
inches,  and  to  cover  not  over  an  inch  deep.  As  the  plants 
grow,  keep  them  well  cultivated,  and  thin  out  until  you 


CUCUMBERS.  69 

have  them  from  eight  to  ten  inches  apart  in  the  row. 
There  will  often  be  two  or  three  plants  close  together  in 
the  row,  and  if  there  are  no  others  for  fifteen  or 
eighteen  inches  on  each  side,  I  should  let  them  all  grow. 
Another  plan,  and  I  think  on  the  whole  the  best,  is  to 
prepare  the  land  just  as  thoroughly  as  you  are  able; 
spread  a  quantity  of  manure  on  the  surface,  say  fifteen  or 
twenty  loads  per  acre;  spread  it  evenly,  and  then  go  over 
it  two  or  three  times  with  a  smoothing  harrow,  and  if  it 
pulls  any  of  the  manure  into  heaps,  re-spread  them  and 
continue  harrowing  and  rolling  until  the  whole  surface 
soil  is  as  fine  and  mellow  as  a  garden.  In 
fact  it  is  a  garden — at  any  rate  we  wish,  to 
introduce  garden  culture  on  the 
farm.  Mark  out  the  land  into 
rows  four  or  five  feet  apart,  and 
then,  with  a  two-horse  plow, 
throw  up  two  furrows  on  each 
side  of  the  mark,  and  so  con- 
tinue until  the  work  is  all  done. 
In  this  way  you  will  get  a  bed  of 
light,  mellow,  well-manured  soil 
in  rows  of  four  or  five  feet 
5  apart;  roll  the  land,  mark  it  Fig.  6.— BABLT 
WHITE  SPINE.  once  more?  and  drill  in  the  seed.  GRBEN  CLUSTER- 
Cucumbers  are  sometimes  grown  on  sod  land.  The 
land  is  marked  out  in  rows,  four  or  five  feet  apart 
both  ways,  and  the  seed  planted  in  hills  made  with  a 
hoe.  If  the  land  is  in  good  condition,  or  if  two  table- 
spoonsful  s  of  superphosphate  are  scattered  in  each  hill, 
you  will  be  likely  to  have  a  good  crop,  with  very  few 
weeds  to  trouble  you. 

The  leading  varieties  are  Early  Eussian,  Early  Green 
Cluster,  Early  Frame,  Early  White  Spine  and  Improved 
Long  Green.  The  latter  two  varieties  are  extensively 
grown  for  the  pickle  factories,  as  well  as  for  market  and 


70  GARDENING   FOB  YOUNG  AND   OLD. 

home  use.  The  pickle  factories,  as  a  rule,  however,  pre- 
fer the  White  Spine.  In  this  neighborhood,  they  pay 
from  one  dollar  to  one  dollar  and  a  half  per  thousand  for 
the  cucumbers,  according  to  the  size;  a  barrel  of  small 
ones  contains  about  five  thousand,  for  which  they  pay 
five  dollars.  Of  the  larger  size,  a  barrel  holds  from  one 
thousand  two  hundred  to  one  thousand  six  hundred, 
for  which  they  pay  from  one  dollar  and  eighty  cents  to 
two  dollars  and  forty  cents  per  barrel.  Some  of  my 
neighbors  grow  cucumbers  for  pickles  on  low,  mucky 
soil,  which  is  usually  too  wet  to  plow  before  the  middle 
of  June.  They  sometimes  have  good  crops  when  they 
plant  as  late  as  the  middle  of  July.  It  would,  of  course, 
be  better  to  drain  the  land  and  plant  earlier. 

EGG  PLANT. 

Egg  Plant,  in  this  section,  needs  to  be  started  in  the 
hot-bed  or  in  a  box  in  the  house,  and,  as  the  plants  re- 


Fig.  7.— NEW  YOKE  IMPBOVBD  PURPLE  EGO  PLANT. 

quire  a  warm  soil  when  set  out  in  the  garden,  the  seeds 
should  not  be  sown  in  the  house  or  hot-bed  until  the  first 
or  second  week  in  April.  Select  a  warm,  sunny  spot  in 


ENDIVE— -KOHL  EABI.  71 

the  garden,  and  make  the  soil  very  loose  and  mellow, 
and  moderately  rich.  Set  the  plants  about  thirty  inches 
apart,  keep  the  ground  clean,  and  as  they  grow,  draw  a 
little  fresh  soil  to  them.  Keep  a  sharp  lookout  for  the 
Colorado-beetle  or  Potato-bug,  as  this  likes  the  Egg-plant 
quite  as  well  as  it  does  potatoes,  and  if  not  destroyed 
will  ruin  the  crop*  The  best  variety  is  the  New  York 
Improved  Purple. 

ENDIVE. 

Endive  is  a  very  hardy  plant,  easily  grown,  and  when 
properly  blanched  makes  an  excellent  salad.  It  can  be 
sown  at  any  time  from  March  to  August,  but  as  it  is 
usually  eaten  late  in  the  fall,  it  is  commonly  sown  in 
June  or  July,  in  rows  twelve  to  fifteen  inches  apart,  and 
the  plants  thinned  out  to  a  foot  distant  in  the  row.  The 
blanching  can  be  done  in  any  way  which  excludes  the 
light.  The  usual  method  is  by  gathering  the  leaves 
together  and  tying  them  at  the  top. 

KOHL  BABI. 

Kohl  Rabi  is  a  variety  of  the  cabbage,  but  it  looks 
more  like  a  turnip.  It  has  been  called  the  Turnip-root- 
ed Cabbage.  It  is  grown  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  cabbage.  It  will  stand  dry 
weather  better  than  turnips,  yields 
equally  well,  and  is  quite  as  nutri- 
tious. It  can  be  transplanted  easily, 
but  it  is  usually  sown,  like  the  tur- 
nip, where  it  is  to  remain.  It  can  be 
profitably  grown  as  a  field  crop  for 
stock.  Unlike  the  turnip  it  does  not 

Fig.  8.— KOHL  BABI.  .  V 

impart  an  unpleasant  navor  to  the 
milk  when  fed  to  cows.  The  preparation  of  the  land, 
cultivation  and  harvesting,  are  similar  to  that  required 


72  GARDENING   FOB   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

for  ruta  baga  or  Swedes.  If  any  thing,  the  land  should 
be  richer  and  the  seeds  sown  a  little  earlier.  The  best 
variety  for  stock  or  for  table  use,  is  the  Large  White  or 
Large  Green.  For  table  use  these  should  be  grown 
quickly  and  used  before  they  become  stringy,  which  they 
will  be  apt  to  be  if  allowed  to  get  larger  than  a  teacup. 


LETTUCE. 

Every  body  raises  Lettuce.  While  no  plant  is  more 
easily  grown,  comparatively  few  people  have  it  in  per- 
fection. The  reason  for  this  is  three-fold.  The  soil  is 


?•  9-  Fig.  10. 

"THE  DEACON"  LETTUCE.  cos  LETTUCE. 

not  made  rich  enough,  it  is  not  thoroughly  cultivated 
and  hoed,  and  the  plants  are  left  entirely  too  close 
together.  As  an  out-door  crop,  lettuce  can  be  sown  in 
the  spring  as  early  as  the  weather  will  permit.  I  have 
sown  it  in  February,  and  though  we  had  very  severe 
weather  afterwards,  the  plants  were  not  injured  by  the 
frost.  In  the  same  field,  however,  the  same  variety, 
"  The  Deacon,"  sown  April  14th,  was  just  as  large  by  the 
first  of  June  as  that  sown  in  February.  The  best  way 
with  this,  as  with  other  hardy  crops,  is  to  sow  as  early  as 


MELONS — MUSK.  73 

the  ground  can  be  brought  into  good  condition,  but 
not  earlier. 

My  own  plan  in  raising  lettuce  is,  to  make  the  land  as 
fine  and  mellow  as  possible,  and  drill  in  the  seed  in  rows, 
twenty-one  inches  apart.  This  is  wide  enough  to  admit 
the  use  of  the  horse-hoe.  As  soon  as  the  rows  can  be 
traced,  we  go  throngh  with  the  cultivator,  and  in  the 
course  of  a  few  days  go  through  again;  the  object  being 
to  make  the  soil  as  loose  and  mellow  as  possible.  I  have 
gone  through  the  rows  three  or  four  times  with  a  culti- 
vator before  the  plants  were  large  enough  to  be  thinned 
out  with  a  hoe.  This  thinning  out  is  the  point  necessary 
for  success.  It  seems  a  great  waste  of  seeds,  of  plants, 
and  of  land,  to  thin  out  the  plants  to  eight  or  ten  inches 
apart,  but  it  is  the  true  plan.  You  must  dash  your  hoe 
through  them  boldly,  cutting  out  the  plants  so  that  they 
will  stand  the  width  of  the  hoe  apart;  then  with  the  hoe 
push  out  all  the  surplus  ones.  An  ordinary  hoe  slants 
too  much  forward  to  do  the  work  properly;  you  should 
heat  the  shank  of  the  hoe,  and  bend  it  until  the  blade  is 
nearly  at  right  angles  with  the  handle.  For  thinning 
out  turnips,  beets,  mangels,  etc.,  such  a  hoe  will  enable 
you  to  do  the  work  without  often  resorting  to  thinning 
out  the  plants  with  the  fingers.  If  the  land  is  in  proper 
condition,  and  you  have  a  good  variety,  you  will  get  a 
splendid  crop  of  the  largest  and  finest  heads  of  lettuce, 
from  the  last  of  June  to  the  middle  of  September. 


MELONS— MUSK. 

A  few  hills  of  Musk  Melons  can  be  started  in  the  hot- 
bed or  in  the  house,  as  recommended  for  cucumbers,  and 
when  the  ground  is  warm,  the  plants  can  be  set  out  in 
the  open  ground  and  shaded  for  a  few  days,  until  they 
get  finally  started.  On  a  farm  where  land  is  abundant, 
4 


74 


GARDENING   FOR   YOUNiG   AND   OLD. 


the  better  plan  is,  to  put  in  the  melon  seed  in  the  open 
ground  as  soon  as  the  soil  is  in  good  working  condition. 
You  may  lose  half  your  seed  and  be  obliged  to  replant, 

but  in  three  years  out  of  four, 
you  will  get  as  good  and  as 
0-  early  a  crop  as  you  would  by 
|  transplanting  from  the  hot-bed. 
|  The  mistake  people  make  is,  in 
g  not  using  seed  enough.  You 
3  ought  to  sow  at  least  three 
g  times  as  many  as  you  think  you 
will  need,  even  of  the  best  of 
seed.  Melons  are  not  all  of  the 
^  best  quality,  and  if  you  have 
|  more  than  you  need,  you  can 
o  reject  those  which  do  not  please 
you.  We  do  not  expect  every 
apple  on  a  tree  to  be  perfect, 
and  we  need  not  expect  every 
%  melon  x>n  the  vine  to  be  of  the 
|  .  choicest  quality.  The  methods 
3  I  recommended  for  the  cultiva- 
HP 1  tion  of  Cucumbers  are  generally 
*  adapted  ta  the  production  of 
|  melons.  If  possible,  the  land 
£  should  be  made  even  richer 
for  melons  than  for  cucumbers. 
<5 1  have  never  yet  seen  land  too 
|  rich  for  them.  Plant  largely 
g  and  sow  thickly,  so  that  if  the 
seed  all  grows,  you  can  thin 
out  the  weak  plants  as  directed 
for  cucumbers.  The  best  varieties  are :  the  Early  Chris- 
tiana, the  Nutmeg,  Green  Citron,  White  Japanese,  and 
Casaba.  Of  the  first  three,  Nutmeg,  Christiana,  and 
Citron,  the  best  variety,  in  my  judgment,  is  the  one  of 


MELONS — WATER.  75 

which  you  happen  to  plant  the  most  largely.  If  you 
have  a  large  crop  you  can  select  delicious  melons  from 
either  of  these  varieties. 


MELONS— WATER. 

Watermelons  can  be  grown  as  easily  as  pumpkins 
or  corn,  but  you  can  not  grow  corn  and  watermelons 
together.  The  land  must  be  entirely  devoted  to  the  mel- 
ons, and  the  mistake  that  people  make,  is,  they  try  to 
grow  melons  and  thistles  on  the  same  ground.  The 
thistles  pump  up  a  large  quantity  of  water  from  the  soil, 
and  when  we  have  dry,  hot  weather,  the  melons  are  left 
without  sufficient  moisture.  The  weather  can  not  be  too 
hot  for  this  crop,  provided  it  has  sufficient  moisture  and 
plant  food.  People  are  apt  to  think  that  if  they  keep 
the  soil  clean  immediately  around  the  hills,  the  rest  of 
the  land  can  be  suffered  to  produce  weeds.  This  is  a 
great  mistake;  the  roots  of  the  melons  are  at  least  as  long 
as  the  vines,  and  in  our  dry,  hot  climate,  they  need  all 
the  moisture  the  land  contains.  The  distance  apart  at 
which  it  is  best  to  plant  watermelons  depends  on  the 
climate.  In  this  section,  they  will  do  well  planted  in 
hills  or  rows  four  or  five  feet  apart,  but  as  we  go  south, 
we  must  increase  the  distance.  One  of  my  correspond- 
ents in  Texas,  wrote  me  that  his  watermelons  completely 
covered  the  ground,  even  when  they  are  planted  fifteen 
or  twenty  feet  apart. 

I  have  grown  excellent  watermelons  on  light,  rich, 
sandy  soil,  in  rows  five  feet  apart.  We  drilled  in  the 
seed  with  an  ordinary  garden  drill,  using  the  hole  made 
for  sowing  corn.  As  the  plants  grow,  thin  out,  leaving 
them  from  eight  to  fifteen  inches  apart  in  the  row,  just 
as  you  happen  to  find  them.  If  the  plants  are  thin,  and 
you  find  two  or  three  near  together,  leave  them  all  to 


76 


GAKDEKI^G   FOR  YOTOG   AKD   OLD. 


grow  if  necessary.  If  the  land  is  rich  enough,  and  you 
keep  it  thoroughly  cultivated  and  free  from  weeds,  you 
may  expect  a  great  crop  of  melons,  and  if  you  don't  get 

it,  try  again.  When 
the  vines  commence 
to  run,  the  weeds  also 
begin  to  grow,  and 
you  may  think  that 
you  can  not  get 
through  the  rows 
with  a  cultivator; 
but  by  going  ahead 
of  the  horse,  you  may 
move  the  vines  out  of 
the  way,  and  leave 
plenty  of  room  for 
the  horse  and  culti- 
vator. Make  thor- 
ough work,  going 
twice  in  the  row,  or 
as  often  as  is  neces- 
sary to  kill  every 
weed,  and  break  up 
the  hard,  dry  soil. 
Work  it  until  it  is  as 
mellow  as  a  garden, 
and  if  there  are  any 
weeds  left  which  you 
can  not  reach  with  a 
cultivator,  cut  them 
out  with  a  hoe,  or 
pull  them  by  hand. 
Watermelons  may  be  planted  in  hills,  and  the  land 
prepared  as  recommended  for  cucumbers,  except  that  it 
is  necessary  to  make  the  hills  wider  apart.  The  method, 
however,  of  plowing  the  land  into  ridges,  or  hills,  both 


MUSTARD.  77 

ways,  is  just  as  applicable  to  watermelons  and  musk- 
melons  as  to  cucumbers.  The  best  varieties  are:  the 
Black  Spanish,  Ice  Cream,  and  Mountain  Sweet.  They 
can  be  planted  a  little  earlier  than  muskmelons,  but 
there  is  nothing  gained  by  doing  it  before  the  land  can  be 
pu  t  into  the  finest  condition.  A  common  mistake  in  plant- 
ing melons  and  cucumbers  is,  to  cover  the  seed  too  deep; 
half  an  inch  is  quite  deep  enough  for  both  muskmelons 
and  cucumbers.  Watermelons,  the  seed  of  which  is 
much  larger,  can  be  deeper,  but  much  depends  on  the 
nature  and  condition  of  the  soil.  Many  a  hill  of  melon 
seed  is  literally  smothered  by  being  covered  with  an  inch 
of  damp  soil  which  bakes  on  the  surface,  while  two  inches 
of  dry,  mellow  sandy  soil  would  do  no  harm. 

CITRON  WATERMELON". 

This  variety  is  grown  exclusively  for  preserving.  The 
fruit  is  round,  skin  light,  and  dark-green,  handsomely 
striped  and  marbled;  a  few  hills  should  be  planted  in 
every  garden.  The  cultivation  is  precisely  the  same  as 
for  other  melons.  It  is  the  smaller  of  the  melons  on 
page  76. 

MUSTARD. 

For  salad  the  cultivation  of  Mustard  is  the  same  as  for 
cress.  Sow  in  rows  wide  enough 
apart  to  admit  the  use  of  the  hoe, 
dropping  two  or  three  seeds  to  each 
inch  of  row.  For  an  early  crop,  se- 
lect a  warm,  sandy  soil,  sow  as  early 
as  the  soil  is  dry  and  mellow,  cover 

iii  i          tifiT.   13. — MT78TAED. 

not    more    than     one-quarter    inch 

deep.     In  a  week  or  ten  days,  sow  another  bed,  and 

continue  to  do  so  at  intervals  for  a  succession.     The 


78  GARDENING   FOR  YOUNG  AND   OLD. 

best  variety  for  salad  is  the  "White  Mustard.  As 
a  field  crop  this  deserves  attention;  our  climate  is  well 
adapted  to  its  cultivation.  As  a  crop  for  plowing  under 
to  enrich  sandy  soil,  or  to  lighten  and  mellow  a  heavy 
one,  White  Mustard  could  often  be  used  with  special 
advantage.  It  can  also  be  profitably  grown  for  feeding 
to  sheep  on  the  land,  or  for  feeding  green  to  cows,  pigs, 
and  horses.  A  great  crop  can  be  grown  for  this  purpose 
on  good,  mellow  land;  but  unless  the  land  is  mellow,  it 
is  of  no  use  to  try  it  in  our  dry,  hot  climate.  It  may  be 
sown  as  late  as  the  first  of  July,  and  still  give  a  large  crop 
in  September  and  October.  It  must  be  eaten  before 
frost.  After  a  severe  frost,  it  is  only  fit  for  plowing  un- 
der for  a  manure. 

The  better  way  is  to  sow  about  twenty  pounds  of  seed 
per  acre,  in  rows  twenty-one  inches  apart,  or  far  enough 
to  admit  the  use  of  a  horse-hoe.  As  soon  as  the  plants 
appear,  run  the  cultivator  between  the  rows,  and  con- 
tinue to  cultivate  at  intervals,  until  the  plants  are  fairly 
started.  They  grow  slowly  at  first,  but  if  the  land  is  in 
good  condition,  when  they  are  once  started,  they  grow 
with  great  rapidity  and  will  smother  the  weeds  and  leave 
the  land  remarkably  clean. 


NASTURTIUM.  — TROP^OLUM. 

In  our  dry,  hot  climate,  the  Nasturtium  or  Indian 
Cress,  can  be  grown  with  great  ease  and  certainty.  As  the 
plants  are  very  tender,  the  slightest  frost  injuring  them, 
they  should  have  a  warm,  dry  soil,  moderately  rich,  and 
kept  free  from  weeds.  There  are  two  varieties  usually 
grown,  one  of  which  is  a  climber,  and  will  run  up  on  a 
pole  or  trellis  for  eight  or  ten  feet.  The  other  is  a  dwarf 
variety,  growing  from  one  to  two  feet  high.  The  latter 
may  be  allowed  to  trail  on  the  ground,  or  be  furnished 


OKRA—  OE   GUMBO.  79 

with  a  few  short  sticks.  The  nasturtium  is  grown  for 
both  ornament  and  use.  The  flowers  are  very  beautiful, 
and  the  seed-pods  are  pickled  and  used  as  a  substitute  for 
capers.  A  row  of  the  dwarf  kind,  with  a  few  short  sticks 
eighteen  inches  long,  and  stuck  a  foot  apart,  not  on  the 
sides,  but  in  the  center  of  the  row,  is  a  charming  addition 
to  any  garden. 

It  is  desirable  to  get  the  plants  as  early  as  possible, 
but  they  are  very  tender,  and  if  we  sow  early,  we  run  the 
risk  of  having  them  destroyed  by  frost;  but  we  can  well 
afford  to  take  the  risk.  Sow  two  rows.  The  seed  is  cheap. 
Sow  one  row  at  the  same  time  you  plant  corn.  The  seed 
is  large  and  may  be  covered  from  one  to  two  inches  deep, 
according  to  the  nature  of  the  soil.  The  earlier  you 
plant,  and  the  heavier  the  soil  the  shallower  should  be 
the  seed.  A  good  plan  is,  to  make  a  double  row,  just  as 
we  sometimes  do  for  peas.  The  rows  may  be  about  four 
inches  apart,  with  one  seed  to  each  two  inches  of  row. 
The  sticks  can  be  placed  between  these  narrow  rows.  If 
more  than  one  of  these  double  rows  is  needed,  the  large 
climbing  nasturtium  should  be  planted  in  rows  five  feet 
apart,  but  the  dwarf  may  be  planted  in  rows  thirty  inches 
apart.  The  second  planting,  which  should  never  be 
neglected,  may  be  made  about  the  time  we  plant  beans. 


OKRA— OR  GUMBO. 

At  the  North  it  is  desirable  to  raise  Okra  plants  in  a 
hot-bed,  or  in  a  box  in  the  house,  and  transplant  them 
to  the  garden  about  the  middle  of  May.  If  the  seed  is 
sown  out  of  doors,  select  a  loose,  warm  soil,  with  a 
southern  exposure.  There  are  two  varieties,  the  Dwarf 
and  Tall;  the  former  is  the  best.  Plant  the  dwarf  kind 
in  rows  thirty  inches  apart,  and  from  eight  to  ten  inches 
in  the  row,  or  sufficiently  wide  to  admit  the  free  use  of 


80  GARDENING   FOR  YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

the  hoe.  The  tall  kind  should  be  in  rows  three  feet 
apart,  and  the  plants  a  foot  in  the  row.  After  they  are 
well  started,  nothing  is  required  except  to  keep  the  land 
free  from  weeds.  The  principal  use  of  okra  is  in  soups. 
The  green  pods  are  used  for  this  purpose;  they  contain 
much  mucilage  which  thickens  the  soup,  and  imparts  an 
agreeable  flavor.  It  is  regarded  as  heathful  and  nu- 
tritious. The  ripe  seeds  roasted  and  ground  have  some- 
times been  used  as  a  substitute  for  coffee. 


ONIONS. 

Great  improvements  have  been  made  in  the  cultivation 
of  Onions,  and  still  greater  improvements  are  yet  to  be 
made,  especially  in  our  methods  of  drilling  in  the  seed 
and  hoeing,  and  weeding  the  crop.  I  have  for  several 
years  sown  my  onion  seed  in  rows,  from  twenty-one  to 
twenty-five  inches  apart,  and  cultivated  with  a  horse-hoe. 
It  is  a  great  saving  of  labor,  but  many  will  object  to  the 
plan,  because  they  think  they  can  get  a  much  heavier 
yield  per  acre  when  the  seed  is  sown  in  closer  rows,  say 
a  foot  apart.  Such  is  probably  the  case.  It  is  a  question 
of  land  versus  labor.  The  improvement  I  want  to  see 
made  is,  in  having  a  drill  which  will  sow  four  rows  at  a 
time.  It  would  be  better,  probably,  to  have  the  two  cen- 
ter rows  twenty  inches  apart,  and  the  other  rows  a  foot 
apart.  This  would  give  plenty  of  room  for  a  quiet  horse 
to  walk  between  the  center  rows.  We  should  have  the 
piece  sown  as  follows:  there  would  be  one  space  twenty 
inches  wide,  and  then  four  rows  a  foot  apart,  each,  and 
then  another  wide  space  of  twenty  inches,  and  so  on. 
We  must  then  have  a  cultivator  or  horse-hoe  that  would 
go  between  these  rows.  It  must  be  the  exact  size  of  the 
drill,  and  provided  with  a  steerage  attachment  which 
would  give  us  control  of  the  hoes  or  cultivator  teeth.  If 


ONIONS.  81 

the  drill  was  rigid,  if  there  was  any  deviation  from  a 
straight  line  in  any  of  the  drills,  there  would  be  the  same 
deviation  in  all  of  them,  and  if  we  could  avoid  cutting 
up  the  plants  in  one  row,  we  should  also  avoid  doing  so 
in  the  other  three  rows.  Such  a  drill  and  cultivator 
combined  would  be  not  only  very  useful  for  sowing  and 
cultivating  onions,  but  for  many  other  farm  and  garden 
crops,  such  as  turnips,  beets,  parsnips,  carrots,  etc. 

Until  we  have  such  a  machine,  we  must  do  the  best 
we  can  with  the  tools  we  now  have.  In  fact,  a  farmer 
who  undertakes  to  raise  onions  for  the  first  time  as  a  field 
crop,  could  hardly  use  such  a  machine  as  I  have  proposed, 
he  would  require  to  have  his  land  much  cleaner  and 
smoother,  and  freer  from  stones  than  would  likely  to  be 
the  case  on  any  ordinary  farm.  Land  for  onions  has  to 
be  made  to  order.  Onions  do  better  on  old  onion  land 
than  when  they  are  raised  on  any  ordinary  soil  for  the 
first  time.  Nearly  all  other  crops  do  better  in  rotation, 
than  when  grown  year  after  year  on  the  same  land.  It  is 
not  clear  why  onions  should  be  an  exception.  I  think 
chemistry  and  plant  food  have  far  less  to  do  with  it  than 
the  mechanical  state  of  the  land.  If  a  man  or  a  boy  would 
bestow  the  necessary  amount  of  labor  in  preparing  and 
enriching  the  land,  I  see  no  reason  to  doubt  that  he 
could  get  just  as  good  a  crop  the  first  year,  as  he  could  the 
second,  third,  or  tenth  year;  but  no  man  will  do  it;  per- 
haps a  boy  may.  There  was  some  excuse  for  men  in 
years  gone  by — they  had  not  the  necessary  tools.  With 
our  modern  implements  we  can  place  land  in  wonderfully 
fine  condition,  at  comparatively  little  expense,  the  first 
year;  but  much  of  the  work  ought  to  be  done  in  the 
autumn.  Suppose  you  try  how  rich,  and  mellow,  you 
can  make  an  acre  of  land  this  fall.  It  does  not  make 
very  much  difference  how  you  do  it.  The  first  thing, 
however,  is  to  get  off  all  the  stones,  and  stumps,  and 
rubbish.  If  a  harrow  will  do  it  any  good,  harrow  it;  if 


82  GARDEKISTG   FOR  -XOTOG   AKD   OLD. 


not,  plow  it,  and  then  roll,  and  harrow,  and  roll  again, 
until  every  lump  is  broken  that  the  harrow  and  roller 
can  reach;  then  plow  again,  and  if  you  should  turn  under 
twenty  or  thirty  loads  of  well-rotted  manure,  so  much  the 
better.  A  hundred  loads  to  the  acre  will  do  no  harm, 
provided  it  is  thoroughly  mixed  with  the  soil.  In  fact, 
it  is  probably  this  intimate  admixture  of  the  manure  with 
the  soil,  that  makes  old  onion  land  so  much  better  than 
new.  Work  in,  therefore,  all  the  manure  you  can;  you 
can  not  put  on  too  much,  and  you  can  not,  at  all  events 
you  certainly  will  not,  work  it  in  too  thoroughly. 

If  the  land  is  properly  prepared  in  the  autumn,  it  is 
not  necessary  or  desirable  to  plow  it  again  in  the  spring; 
it  might  be  gone  over  with  a  gang-plow  or  cultivator,  or 
if  the  soil  is  light,  a  good  harrow  will  be  sufficient.  It  is 
very  essential  to  get  in  the  seed  as  soon  as  the  frost  is  out 
of  the  ground.  In  fact,  the  onions  may  be  sown  to  ad- 
vantage as  soon  as  the  first  two  or  three  inches  are  thawed 
out  and  moderately  dry,  even  though  the  sub-soil  is  still 
a  mass  of  frozen  earth.  Onions  are  quite  hardy,  and  will 
stand  an  ordinary  frost  without  injury. 

In  sowing  onions  with  a  drill,  it  is  very  desirable  to 
have  the  tube,  or  coulter,  which  makes  the  drill  row  in 
which  the  seed  is  deposited,  as  narrow  as  possible.  It 
was  thought  at  one  time  better  to  scatter  the  seed  in  a 
wide  drill  mark,  but  there  is  nothing  to  be  gained  by  it, 
and  the  wider  it  is,  the  greater  space  is  there  which  we 
can  not  reach  with  the  hoe,  and  which  we  must  weed 
with  the  fingers.  Our  drill  makers  do  not  seem  to 
understand  this,  or  instead  of  the  rough  cast-iron  shank, 
which  many  of  them  have  hitherto  furnished,  they  would 
make  a  bright,  sharp,  narrow  steel  coulter,  which  would 
not  clog  or  make  too  wide  a  drill  mark. 

As  soon  as  the  rows  can  be  traced,  go  through  with  a 
hoe.  It  will  do  the  onions  good,  even  if  there  are  no  weeds. 
Some  people  recommend  going  over  the  land  with  a  steel 


ONIONS.  83 

rake,  but  I  have  never  yet  had  sufficient  courage  to  rako 
my  crop  of  onions  hard  enough  to  kill  the  weeds.  If  you 
do  the  work  yourself,  I  think  it  is  very  likely  that  there 
are  times  when  a  steel  rake  would  destroy  millions  of 
weeds  without  injuring  the  onions.  On  the  whole,  how- 
ever, I  think  we  had  better  depend  on  a  sharp,  bright 
hoe,  skillfully  used  on  each  side  of  the  rows,  pulling  out 
with  the  fingers  any  weeds  that  may  be  left  in  the  row. 
If  you  have  a  large  crop,  and  there  is  danger  that  the 
weeds  may  get  the  start  of  you,  it  is  better  not  to  stop  to 
pull  out  the  weeds  at  the  first  hoeing;  go  through  the 
patch  with  a  hoe,  and  then,  when  the  whole  piece  is  once 
hoed,  go  over  it  again,  hoeing  and  hand-weeding  at  the 
same  time.  It  is  generally  necessary  to  weed  onions  twice. 
The  only  safe  rule  is,  to  hoe  and  weed  as  often  as  is 
necessary  to  kill  every  weed,  and  even  if  there  are  no 
weeds  visible,  it  pays  to  run  a  cultivator  or  hoe  between 
the  rows  once  a  week  until  the  onions  are  five  or  six  inches 
high.  Success  in  raising  onions  depends  largely  on  three 
things:  rich  land,  early  sowing,  and  clean  cultivation. 

The  best  varieties  are  the  Yellow  Danvers,  Early  Red 
Globe,  White  Globe,  and  the  Large  Red  Wethersfield. 
The  Early  Red  Globe  can  be  grown  successfully  where  the 
later  varieties,  like  the  Large  Wethersfield,  are  apt  to  run 
up  to  scallions.  Scallions  are  the  dread  of  the  onion 
grower.  A  scallion  is  an  onion  with  a  thick  neck.  In- 
stead of  forming  a  bulb  early  in  the  season,  the  top  then 
withering  down,  the  onion  keeps  on  growing,  throwing 
out  a  great  mass  of  roots,  forming  a  long,  thick  neck, 
with  a  comparatively  immature  bulb.  Sometimes  scal- 
lions are  the  result  of  poor  seed.  I  do  not  mean  seed  that 
will  not  grow,  but  that  which  is  raised  from  late,  imma- 
ture onions,  not  good  enough  to  send  to  market.  But  no 
respectable  seed-grower  ever  raises  such  seed,  and  we  must 
look  for  other  causes  to  learn  why  onions  so  frequently 
turn  to  scallions.  Late  sowing  is  the  most  frequent  cause; 


84  GABDE^I^G   FOB   YOUKG   AtfD   OLD. 

neglecting  to  hoe  and  weed  the  crop  when  young,  is  an- 
other cause,  and  possibly,  poor  land  has  something  to  do 
with  it.  It  is  usual  to  sow  five  pounds  of  onion  seed  per 
acre.  But  I  am  aware  that  this  does  not  tell  you  how 
thick  you  must  sow  the  seed.  I  should  set  the  drill  to 
drop  about  three  seeds  to  each  inch  of  row.  It  is  far  bet- 
ter to  have  an  onion  crop  too  thick  than  too  thin.  In 
hoeing  and  weeding,  no  matter  how  careful  you  may  be, 
more  or  less  omons  will  be  destroyed. 

The  market  demand  is  not  so  much  for  large  onions 
as  formerly.  It  is  far  better  to  have  three  moderate- 
sized  bulbs  than  one  very  large  one,  and  the  old  practice 
of  thinning  onions  so  as  to  leave  only  one  bulb  to  each 
three  or  four  inches  of  row,  is  now  abandoned  by  all  ex- 
perienced growers.  Onions  will  grow  in  bunches,  three, 
four,  or  five  in  a  bunch,  and  if  the  land  is  rich  enough, 
and  the  rows  are  sufficiently  wide  apart,  a  dozen,  fifteen, 
or  even  twenty  onions  can  be  grown  on  each  foot  of  row. 

The  Onion-maggot  is  sometimes  quite  troublesome. 
It  rarely  troubles  me,  but  one  of  my  neighbors,  who 
raises  large  crops  of  onions  on  what  was  formerly  a 
Black- Ash  swamp,  and  which  is  even  still  only  partially 
drained,  occasionally  suffers  much  loss.  He  thinks  an 
application  of  four  hundred  pounds  of  salt  per  acre,  sown 
broadcast  early  in  the  spring,  will  kill  the  maggot;  per- 
haps so,  perhaps  not.  The  salt,  however,  will  do  no 
harm,  and  may  otherwise  do  good,  even  if  it  does  not 
always  kill  the  maggot.  I  have  known  Peruvian  guano 
to  be  used  for  the  same  purpose  with  decided  advantage; 
and  so  with  superphosphate  of  lime,  or  any  other  good 
fertilizer.  Any  thing  which  will  promote  rapid  growth, 
will  lesson  the  chances  of  injury  from  maggots  or  loss 
from  scallions. 

Perhaps  a  word  should  be  said  in  regard  to  the  best 
land  for  onions.  In  point  of  fact  there  is  no  best  land 
for  them;  you  must  make  the  land.  Onions  will  grow 


85 

on  all  kinds  of  soil,  ranging  from  the  most  spongy  muck 
to  the  heaviest  clay.  Probably  the  most  profitable  onion 
ground  would  be  a  mucky  swamp,  with  a  never  failing 
stream  running  through  it,  with  sufficient  fall  to  afford 
good  drainage  three  feet  deep.  If  such  a  swamp  were 
thoroughly  subdued,  drain-tiles  laid  two  and  a  half  to 
three  feet  deep,  every  three  or  four  rods,  and  then  a  dam 
built  across  tins  stream,  with  a  gate  which  could  be  ele- 
vated or  lowered  at  pleasure,  the  most  magnificent  crops 
of  onions  could  be  grown  every  year,  with  comparatively 
little  labor.  In  the  spring,  the  gate  of  course  would  be 
lifted,  and  the  under-drains,  even  though  they  had  to 
discharge  into  the  swollen  stream,  would  remove  the 
stagnant  water,  and  leave  the  surface  dry  and  firm,  and 
the  onions  could  be  sown  as  soon  as  we  had  a  few  fine 
days  in  spring.  When  dry  weather  set  in,  and  the  crop 
needed  more  moisture,  shut  down  the  gate,  and  as  the 
water  rose  in  the  stream  it  would  flow  back  into  the  un- 
der drains,  and  the  dry,  porous,  mucky  soil  would  suck 
it  up  like  a  sponge,  and  the  dryer  and  hotter  the  weather 
the  more  rapidly  would  the  onions  grow.  We  might 
safely  calculate  on  getting  from  such  a  soil  an  average 
crop,  year  after  year,  of  one  thousand  bushels  per  acre. 
Onions  will  sell  readily  in  the  autumn,  shipped  direct 
from  the  field,  for  seventy-five  cents  to  one  dollar  per 
bushel,  and  you  can  tell  as  well  as  I,  whether  it  would 
pay  to  make  the  improvement  suggested.  Onion  land  is 
often  rented  on  shares,  the  owner  furnishing  half  the 
seed,  and  half  the  manure,  and  the  tenant  doing  all  the 
work,  and  giving  the  landowner  half  the  crop.  On  such 
a  piece  of  land  as  I  have  described,  the  net  profit  to  the 
owner  would  average  at  least  three  hundred  and  sixty 
dollars  an  acre,  which  is  six  per  cent,  interest  on  six 
thousand  dollars. 


86  GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

ONION   SETS. 

Onion  Sets,  so  called,  are  simply  small  onions.  If  a 
small  onion  is  set  out  in  the  fall  or  in  the  spring,  it  will 
grow  and  produce  either  one  very  large  onion,  or  two  or 
three  good  sized  ones.  In  the  Southern  States,  and  in 
many  sections  of  the  South-west,  it  is  not  easy  to  grow 
onions  direct  from  the  seed,  or  "black  seed"  as  the 
growers  often  call  it,  to  distinguish  it  from  the  sets. 
There  onions  are  grown  from  sets,  and  there  is  a  large 
demand  for  these  small  onions  or  sets,  the  price  ranging 
from  five  dollars  to  ten  dollars  per  bushel.  The  smaller 
the  onions,  provided  the  bulbs  are  mature  and  well 
formed,  the  more  valuable  they  are,  because  a  given 
number  will  not  only  plant  more  land,  but  there  is  less 
likelihood  of  their  running  up  to  seed.  Onion  sets  are 
grown  in  the  same  way  as  ordinary  onions,  except  that 
they  are  sown  very  much  thicker. 

Many  people  have  an  idea  that  the  way  to  raise  onion 
sets  is  to  sow  the  seed  late  in  the  spring,  and  to  select 
rather  poor,  sandy  land.  This  is  a  mistake;  they  need 
good,  warm,  dry  and  rich  soil,  and  the  earlier  the  seeds 
are  sown  the  better.  In  this  section,  the  crop  should  be 
ripe  not  later  than  the  first  of  August.  It  is  a  good  plan 
to  prepare  the  ground  in  the  fall,  as  recommended  for 
onions;  then  in  the  spring,  mark  off  the  land  into  rows, 
thirty  inches  apart,  taking  pains  to  make  the  rows 
straight,  then  drill  in  six  rows  of  seed  from  an  inch  and 
a  half  to  two  inches  apart  alongside  of  the  mark;  set  the 
drill  to  drop  five  or  six  seeds  in  each  inch  of  row,  in  each 
of  the  six  rows.  In  other  words,  when  the  set  of  rows  is 
sown,  you  should  have  from  thirty  to  thirty-six  seeds  in 
each  lineal  inch.  The  advantage  of  the  plan  is,  that 
you  can  use  the  horse-hoe  or  cultivator  between  the  wide 
rows,  and  between  the  narrow  rows  a  sharp  pointed 
onion-hoe  can  be  used  to  break  the  crust,  and  kill  the 


87 

weeds;  weeds  which  can  not  be  reached  with  the  hoe 
should  be  pulled  out  by  hand.  It  is  absolutely  essential 
to  keep  the  crop  clean.  The  object  is,  to  stimulate 
growth  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  produce  early  maturity 
on  the  other,  with  a  tendency  to  produce  bulbs.  We 
wish  to  raise  dwarf  onions.  We  can  not  do  this  unless 
every  condition  for  the  growth  of  the  plant,  except  root 
pruning  and  excessive  crowding,  is  favorable.  It  is  not 
easy  to  keep  onion  sets  during  the  winter,  and  in  fact 
the  better  way  is  to  plant  the  sets  in  the  fall.  They  will 
stand  the  winter  without  injury,  and  give  a  larger  crop. 
If,  however,  you  wish  to  keep  the  sets  through  the  win- 
ter, do  not  put  them  in  a  damp  cellar,  but  in  a  dry  loft, 
which  can  be  kept  as  near  the  freezing  point  as  possible, 
so  as  to  prevent  them  from  starting  to  grow.  Freezing 
will  not  injure  them,  provided  you  can  keep  them  from 
thawing  until  they  are  wanted  in  the  spring. 

KAISING   ONION"   SEED. 

It  is  a  very  important  matter  to  have  good  seed,  and  I 
recommend  my  young  friends  to  select  a  few  of  their 
choicest  and  best  onions  and  set  them  out  every  fall  for 
seed.  Onions  for  seed  can  be  set  in  spring  or  autumn, 
but  the  latter  is  the  best  time.  And  here  I  would  like 
to  tell  the  boys  an  important  discovery  which  I  think  I 
have  made,  and  which  I  am  almost  tempted  to  keep  for 
my  own  use  and  profit,  as  I  think  there  is  money  in  it. 
I  have  for  the  last  eighteen  years  been  growing  seed  of 
the  Yellow  Danvers  variety.  I  selected  the  very  best 
bulbs  from  a  large  crop  each  year,  and  I  succeeded  in  get- 
ting a  strain  of  the  choicest  seed.  It  produced  the  finest 
onions,  but  I  could  get  scarcely  any  seed.  When  I  raised 
the  seed  it  was  very  valuable;  but  there  was  so  little  of  it, 
that  it  has  sometimes  cost  me  one  hundred  dollars  per 
pound.  The  onions  were  so  good  that  they  would  not 


88  GABDENING  FOE  .YOUNG  AND  OLD. 

produce  seed.  The  discovery  that  I  think  I  have  made 
is  this :  sow  the  seed  in  the  spring  in  the  usual  way,  ex- 
cept that  you  sow  it  very  thickly;  the  object  being  to 
get  small  bulbs.  Set  these  small  onions  out  in  the  fall, 
and  let  them  produce  large  onions,  rejecting  any  that  go 
to  seed  at  that  time.  The  next  fall,  set  out  these  large 
onions  for  seed.  The  way  we  do  this,  is  to  make  the 
land  very  rich,  thoroughly  mixing  the  manure  with  the 
soil  and  have  it  as  clean  and  mellow  as  possible.  Mark 
off  the  land  with  a  common  corn-marker  in  rows  forty- 
two  inches  apart;  set  out  the  onions  in  these  rows,  four 
or  five  inches  apart,  or  so  near  that  they  will  almost 
touch  each  other  in  the  row,  press  them  down  into  the 
mellow  soil,  and  cover  carefully  with  the  hoe  or  plow. 
If  the  plow  is  used,  follow  with  a  hoe  so  as  to  be  sure 
that  every  bulb  is  well  covered  to  the  depth  of  two  or 
three  inches.  The  best  time  here  to  set  out  onions  for 
seed  is  about  the  first  of  October.  Nothing  more  needs 
to  be  done  until  spring,  when  the  soil  must  be  thoroughly 
and  repeatedly  cultivated,  and  not  a  weed  suffered  to 
grow.  The  seed  is  gathered  by  cutting  off  the  heads  into 
baskets,  and  spreading  them  out  on  canvas  to  dry. 
Thrash  with  a  flail,  and  clean  by  running  through  a  fan- 
ning mill. 

THE  POTATO  ONION. 

The  cultivation  of  Potato  Onions  is  similar  to  that  of 
onion  sets.  The  small  potato  onions  are  planted  early  in 
spring,  in  rows  fifteen  inches  apart,  and  four  to  five 
inches  distant  in  the  row;  keep  the  land  clean,  and  that 
is  all  there  is  to  be  done.  Each  small  bulb  will  make  a 
large  one.  The  next  spring  set  out  some  of  the  large 
bulbs  that  have  been  saved  for  the  purpose,  and  each  will 
give  a  cluster  of  small  ones  to  be  planted  the  following 
year.  This  is  the  usual  routine,  but  generally  a  share  of 


PAKSLEY.  89 

those  planted  will  split  up  into  several  small  ones  in- 
stead of  making  one  large  onion. 

THE  TOP,  OR  TEEE   ONION. 

When  an  ordinary  onion  is  set  ou£  in  autumn  or  in 
spring,  it  throws  up  a  stalk  with  a  large  head  of  flowers, 
followed  by  seed.  A  Top-onion  grows  in  precisely  the 
same  manner,  but  it  throws  up  a  stalk,  on  the  top  of 
which,  instead  of  seed,  we  have  a  bunch  or  cluster  of 
small  onions.  When  these  small  bulbs  are  set  out  in  the 
fall  or  spring,  they  give  us  a  crop  of  very  early  green 
onions.  The  objection  to  the  top  onion  is,  that  when 
ripe  it  does  not  keep  well,  and  should  be  used  in  the  fall. 


PAESLEY. 

Parsley  seed  is  very  slow  in  germinating,  and  it  is  de- 
sirable to  sow  it  as  early  in  the  spring  as  possible.  The 
soil  should  be  prepared  in  the  fall,  and  the  seed  sown  as 
soon  as  the  frost  is  out  of  the  ground.  Sow  in  rows  fif- 
teen inches  apart,  dropping  three  or  four  seeds  to  each 
inch  of  row ;  keep  the  ground  hoed  and  entirely  free  from 
weeds.  Thin  out  the  plants  to  two  inches  apart  in  the 
row.  There  is  a  rapidly  increasing  demand  for  parsley, 
not  only  for  garnishing,  but  for  flavoring  soups,  etc.  The 
best  variety  for  the  garden  is  the  Extra  Double- Curled. 
In  Europe,  parsley  is  often  sown  with  a  mixture  of  grasses 
and  clover,  as  a  pasture  for  sheep;  for  this  purpose,  the 
common  straight-leaved  variety  is  the  best.  The  seed  is 
cheaper  and  the  yield  larger.  Sheep  are  very  fond  of 
parsley,  and  it  is  supposed  to  give  an  agreeable  flavor  to 
the  mutton.  Parsley  is  biennial;  if  sown  this  spring  it 
makes  only  leaves,  but  the  next  year  it  runs  up  to  seed. 
During  the  winter  and  spring,  previous  to  its  going  to 


90 


GARDENING   FOB  YOUNG   AND   OLD. 


seed,  a  small  bed  would  afford  an  abundance.  JSut  if  you 
have  no  parsley  at  all  in  the  garden,  and  wish  a  supply 
early  in  the  summer,  a  good  plan  is,  to  sow  the  seed  in  a 
box  in  the  house,  in  February,  and  transplant  it  to  the 


Fig.  14.— PABSLBT. 

open  ground  as  soon  as  the  weather  is  suitable.  It  is  a 
hardy,  vigorous  plant,  and  grows  rapidly  when  fairly 
started,  but  is  slow  until  the  plants  get  firm  hold  of  the 
soil. 

PAESNIR 

Taking  one  year  with  another,  there  are  few  crops 
which  the  farm-gardener  can  raise  to  greater  advantage 
and  profit,  in  proportion  to  the  labor  required,  than  the 
Parsnip.  It  is  hardier  than  the  carrot,  can  be  sown  earlier, 
requires  less  weeding,  yields  quite  as  many  or  more  bush- 
els to  the  acre,  and  the  roots,  if  we  wish,  can  be  left  in 
the  soil  all  winter  without  injury.  If  desired,  parsnips 
can  be  sown  in  the  fall;  the  only  precaution  necessary 
being  to  put  in  about  twice  as  much  seed  as  you  would 


PAESKIP.  91 

in  the  spring,  so  that  if  any  of  the  plants  are  killed  by 
the  winter,  there  will  be  enough  left.  The  usual  time  of 
sowing  parsnips,  and  probably  the  best  time,  is  about 
that  for  planting  Indian  corn.  There  is  nothing  to  be 
gained  by  sowing  before  the  land  can  be  brought  into  the 
very  best  possible  condition.  On  my  own  farm,  we 
usually  sow  about  the  first  of  June,  in  rows  twenty-one 
inches  apart,  sowing  about  three  seeds  to  each  inch  of 
drill.  It  pays  to  sow  thickly,  as  the  plants  come  up  better 
and  hold  the  weeds  in  check,  and  they  can  then  be 
thinned  out  with  a  sharp-pointed  hoe  to  three  inches 
apart  in  the  row,  at  the  same  time  cutting  out  many  of 
the  weeds.  Keep  the  ground  thoroughly  cultivated  and 
hoed,  and  if  the  land  is  rich  and  well  prepared,  you  can 
hardly  fail  of  getting  a  large  crop.  As  before  stated, 
parsnips  can  be  left  in  the  ground  all  winter,  and  those 
not  required  before  spring  are  better  if  left  out.  Those 
needed  for  use  in  winter  and  early  spring,  must  be  dug 
in  the  fall  and  kept  in  the  cellar,  mixed  with  sand,  or 
what  is  better  still,  pitted  in  the  field,  or  on  some  sandy 
knoll  near  the  house. 

It  quite  often  happens  that  parsnips  will  bring  a 
very  high  price  in  early  spring,  before  the  frost  is  out  of 
the  ground,  and  those  who  have  them  in  pits  can  sell  at 
a  large  profit.  Last  spring,  I  was  offered  seventy-five 
cents  a  bushel  for  my  entire  crop.  It  is  not  at  all  a  dif- 
ficult matter  to  raise  from  six  hundred  to  eight  hundred 
bushels  to  the  acre.  True,  there  are  required  good  soil, 
deeply  and  thoroughly  worked,  plenty  of  manure,  early 
sowing,  good  seed,  and  good  cultivation.  The  best  vari- 
ety for  deep,  rich  soils,  is  the  Long  White  Dutch,  and 
for  a  somewhat  shallower  soil,  the  Hollow  Crown.  It  is 
very  important  to  get  good  fresh  seed,  as  that  which  is 
more  than  one  year  old  will  nearly  always  fail  to  grow. 


92  GAKDENING   FOE  YOUNG   AND  OLD. 

TO  EAISE  PARSNIP  SEED. 

Where  the  crop  of  Parsnip  seed  is  not  injured  by  the 
caterpillar  (Depressaria  cicutella),  its  production  is  easy 
and  profitable.  But  it  is  desirable  to  take  more  pains  in 
raising  it  than  is  sometimes  given  to  the  crop.  The  seed 
should  never  be  grown  from  plants  which  have  been  left 
in  the  ground  all  winter,  and  suffered  to  throw  up  their 
stalks  where  they  stand,  as  it  is  impossible  to  tell  which 
are  and  which  are  not  the  best  formed  roots.  The  roots 
should  be  taken  up  in  autumn,  and  carefully  selected, 
rejecting  all  that  show  any  disposition  to  fork  or  throw 
out  fangs.  The  smoothest,  handsomest,  and  best  formed 
roots  only,  should  be  selected  for  seed.  Prepare  the  land 
the  previous  autumn,  plowing  it  not  less  than  ten  inches 
deep,  and  working  in  a  good  coat  of  well-rotted  manure, 
not  less  than  twenty  tons  per  acre.  The  more  thoroughly 
the  land  can  be  worked  the  better;  then,  as  early  in  the 
spring  as  the  soil  and  season  will  admit,  mark  out  the 
land  in  rows,  forty-two  inches  apart,  and  with  a  good 
plow  throw  out  a  deep,  straight  furrow.  Set  out  the  pars- 
nips six  to  eight  inches  apart  in  the  furrow,  and,  if  neces- 
sary, use  a  crowbar  to  make  holes  for  them;  then  turn 
the  furrow  back  again  upon  the  parsnips,  finishing  the 
work  with  a  hoe,  taking  care  to  pull  the  soil  well  up  to 
the  crowns.  If  the  soil  is  loose  and  mellow,  it  may  be 
half  an  inch  or  so  deep  on  top  of  the  roots.  Nothing 
more  is  required,  except  to  keep  the  land  well  cultivated 
and  hoed,  as  long  as  you  can  get  between  the  rows  with 
a  horse.  If  any  weeds  are  left,  they  must  be  pulled  out 
by  hand,  or  cut  off  with  the  hoe.  If  the  caterpillars  ap- 
pear, there  is  nothing  to  be  done  but  to  give  them  a 
gentle  pressure  with  the  finger  and  thumb.  If  they  bury 
themselves  in  the  umbels,  do  not  wait  to  ascertain 
whether  the  caterpillar  is  in  the  nest  or  not,  give  it  the 
benefit  of  the  doubt.  I  have  pinched  many  a  nest  with 


PEAS.  93 

a  good  deal  of  satisfaction,  and  with  much  profit  to  the 
crop  of  seed. 

PEAS. 

The  market  gardener,  and  in  fact  all  the  gardeners, 
take  great  pains  to  get  Peas  as  early  as  possible.  For- 
tunately the  seed  is  very  hardy  and  will  germinate  at  a 
low  temperature,  except  some  of  the  late  and  large  vari- 
eties, such  as  the  Veitch's  Perfection.  In  three  seasons 
out  of  four,  the  seed  of  these  is  apt  to  rot  in  the  ground, 
but  the  moderately  sized,  early  varieties,  which,  unfor- 
tunately are  not,  and  I  fear  never  can  be,  so  sweet  as  the 
large  and  later  kinds,  can  be  planted  the  moment  the 
frost  is  out  of  the  ground.  Last  year  I  planted  my  peas 
in  February,  and  I  do  not  think  one  in  a  hundred  failed 
to  germinate.  For  early  peas,  therefore,  it  is  necessary 
to  prepare  the  soil  the  autumn  previous,  taking  just  as 
much  pains  as  if  you  were  going  to  sow  the  crop  at  that 
time.  I  would  even  mark  out  the  rows  where  the  seeds 
are  to  be  sown;  then  in  the  spring,  open  a  row,  or  drill, 
two  or  three  inches  wide  with  a  hoe,  about  two  inches 
deep,  and  sow  the  peas,  not  more  than  half  an  inch  apart, 
or  five  or  six  peas  to  each  lineal  inch  of  this  wide  row. 
Thick  seeding  is  very  desirable,  not  only  for  early  peas, 
but  for  nearly  all  early  crops;  the  seeds  in  germinating 
give  out  heat,  and  when  thick  in  the  row  or  bed,  they 
help  to  keep  each  other  warm. 

Early  peas  should  be  sown  on  the  warmest  and  dryest 
land,  it  does  not  make  much  difference  whether  it  is  light 
or  heavy,  provided  it  is  dry  and  can  be  readily  worked 
in  the  spring  without  afterwards  baking.  A  sandy  loam, 
and  from  that  to  a  light  sand,  is  best,  but  whatever  the 
character  of  the  soil,  a  good  crop  of  very  early  peas  can 
not  be  grown  unless  it  is  rich.  For  a  second  early  crop, 
it  is  not  necessary  to  take  so  much  pains;  still,  the  better 


94 


GARDENING   FOE   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 


the  soil  and  the  better  the  preparation,  with  a  liberal 
amount  of  manure,  the  more  satisfactory  will  be  the  crop. 

Sow  as  soon  as  the  land 
can  be  got  in  good 
working  condition;  the 
earlier  the  better.  Peas, 
as  a  rule,  cannot  be 
sown  too  early.  The 
succession  of  crops 
should  be  looked  after, 
by  sowing  varieties  that 
are  early,  second  early, 
medium  and  late,  rath- 
er than  by  the  time  of 
sowing.  In  the  garden 
we  usually  sow  all  ex- 
cept the  dwarf  varieties 
in  rows,  three  to  four 
feet  apart,  and  stick 
brush  on  each  side  of 
the  row  for  the  peas  to 
climb  upon.  This  is 
done  for  the  conven- 
ience of  picking,  and 
it  may  be  that  a  larger 
yield  is  obtained. 

In  raising  them  on  a 
large  scale  for  picking 
green  for  market,  or  for 
the  canning  establish- 
ments, peas  are  never 
stuck  or  brushed.  My 
own  plan  is  to  drill  in  the  seed  in  a  double  row 
twenty-eight  inches  apart.  "We  take  a  wheat  drill 
which  has  coulters  or  tubes,  seven  inches  apart;  the 
two  outside  tubes  we  wire  together,  so  that  they  are 


Fig.   15.—  GREEN  PEA  PODS. 


PEAS.  95 

not  more  than  two  inches  apart;  the  next  three  tubes 
are  drawn  up  and  shut  off  so  that  they  will  not  sow; 
the  next  two  tubes  are  wired  together  as  before,  and 
allowed  to  sow,  and  the  next  three  tubes  are  shut  off,  and 
the  next  two  outside  tubes  are  wired  together  and 
allowed  to  sow.  We  thus  sow  three  double  rows  at  a 
time,  and  we  have  a  space  of  fully  two  feet  between  the 
rows,  in  which  we  can  use  the  cultivator  or  horse-hoe. 
The  plan  works  admirably.  I  like  to  sow  the  peas 
thickly,  and  we  set  the  drill  so  that,  if  all  the  tubes  were 
running,  we  should  sow  four  bushels  per  acre,  but  as 
there  are  twelve  tubes  in  the  drill,  and  we  only  sow  with 
six,  we  use  but  two  bushels  per  acre.  This  is  thick 
enough,  but  it  is  not  a  bit  too  thick;  I  should  prefer  to  sow 
thicker  than  this,  rather  than  thinner.  To  succeed  in  rais- 
ing green  peas  for  market  in  this  way,  we  must  not  expect 
a  large  crop  on  average  farm  land,  with  average  farm  treat- 
ment. We  want  the  dryest  and  best  of  land.  It  should  be 
•free  from  stones  and  sticks,  and  in  the  very  best  mechan- 
ical condition,  with  a  liberal  supply  of  manure.  The  soil 
should  be  made  ready  the  autumn  previous,  using  only  a 
gang-plow  or  cultivator  in  the  spring.  The  roller  and 
harrow  should  be  used  again  and  again,  if  necessary, 
until  every  clod  is  broken,  and  the  surface  soil  is  as  loose 
and  mellow  as  a  garden.  In  fact,  it  is  a  garden,  and  we 
are  proposing  to  grow  a  very  important  and  profitable 
crop. 

The  best  varieties  for  market  are:  the  Extra  Early 
Kent,  for  the  earliest  crop;  Kentish  Invicta,  for  the 
second  early,  and  the  Champion  of  England,  or  the  White 
Marrowfat,  for  the  last  crop.  In  quality,  Champion  of 
England  is  by  far  the  best  variety.  In  the  garden,  for 
home  use,  we  have  many  varieties  of  great  merit.  For 
the  earliest  crop,  I  know  of  nothing  better  than  a  good 
strain  of  Extra  Early  Kent.  It  has  a  dozen  or  more 
different  names;  the  value  of  the  alleged  varieties  de- 


96  GAEDENING   FOB  YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

pends  on  the  care  with  which  they  are  selected  for  seed. 
They  have  a  constant  tendency  to  degenerate  on  the  one 
hand,  or  to  improve  on  the  other,  and  a  skillful  and  ex- 
perienced grower,  hy  selecting  the  earliest  peas  and  those 
which  are  the  most  wrinkled,  can  very  soon  obtain  a 
strain  of  early  peas  which  is  certain  to  give  satisfaction. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  all  the  earliest  pods  are  picked  off 
for  your  own  table  or  for  market,  and  those  which  are  left 
used  for  seed,  you  will  soon  have  a  strain  of  Early  Kent 
Peas  that  are  no  better  than  the  Canada  Creeper,  or  other 
small,  round,  smooth,  common  field  pea.  Peas  do  not 
mix,  at  any  rate  not  readily  or  frequently,  and  a  really 
new  variety  is  rarely  found.  Some  valuable  new  kinds 
have  been  obtained  by  artificial  crossing. 

Of  late  years,  much  attention  has  been  paid  to  the  in- 
troduction of  dwarf  varieties  of  peas,  such  as  Tom  Thumb, 
Little  Gem,  and  the  American  Wonder.  The  advantages 
of  the  dwarf  kinds  are,  that  they  do  not  need  sticks,  and 
two  or  three  times  as  many  rows  can  be  sown  on  the  land. 

If,  however,  the  only  object  of  bushing  is  to  lift  up  the 
peas  to  a  convenient  hight  for  picking,  we  gain  nothing 
in  this  respect  by  sowing  the  dwarf  kinds.  It  is  quite  as 
tiresome  4o  pick  pods  from,  dwarf  peas  as  it  is  from  un- 
bushed  Early  Kent,  or  Champion  of  England.  Dwarf 
peas  should  not  be  sown  in  rows  less  than  fifteen  inches 
apart.  The  land  should  be  rich,  and  kept  well  hoed  and 
entirely  free  from  weeds.  Dwarf  peas,  if  sown  in  close 
rows  and  the  weeds  allowed  to  grow,  will  not  give  satis- 
faction. Green  peas,  to  be  tender  and  sweet,  must  be 
grown  rapidly,  and  for  this  they  must  have  the  richest  of 
land,  and  the  best  of  cultivation.  It  is  quite  an  object 
to  get  a  crop  of  peas  late  in  the  season,  when  the  main 
crop  is  all  gone.  For  this  purpose,  late  varieties,  such  as 
Champion  of  England  or  Marrowfats  are  sown  late  in  the 
spring.  In  three  years  out  of  four,  however,  these  late 
sown,  late  varieties,  are  apt  to  mildew.  The  better  way 


PEPPER — CAPSICUM.  97 

is  to  sow  the  early  varieties  in  June  or  July.  In  the 
hands  of  a  skillful  and  experienced  gardener,  peas  are  a 
very  profitable  crop.  The  price  varies  considerably, 
ranging  from  two  dollars  per  bushel  for  the  early,  to  fifty 
cents  per  bushel  later  in  the  season.  The  latter  price  is 
paid  by  the  canning  factories.  It  is  a  good  plan  to  con- 
tract with  a  canning  establishment  to  take  all  the 
peas  after  the  price  in  market  falls  to  seventy-five  cents 
per  bushel.  Taking  the  whole  crop  together,  the  returns 
are  quite  satisfactory.  It  costs  here  fifteen  cents  per 
bushel  to  pick  the  peas. 

'BUGGY   PEAS. 

The  principal  insect  enemy  of  the  pea  is  the  Weevil 
(Bruchus  pisi).  It  is  spreading  very  rapidly.  Not  Jong 
ago,  peas  grown  in  the  northern  latitudes  and  in  Canada, 
were  not  injured  by  the  Weevil.  Now  we  get  "buggy 
peas "  from  many  places  formerly  free  from  this  pest. 
There  is  nothing  that  we  can  do  to 
check  or  destroy  the  Weevil  after  it 
is  introduced.  What  we  should  all 
aim  to  do  is,  never  to  sow  buggy 
peas.  In  time  this  would  help  us. 
Do  not  buy  seed  peas  from  any  seeds- 
man unless  he  will  warrant  them 
entirely  free  from  bugs. 

PEPPER— CAPSICUM. 

Pepper,  or  Capsicum,  is  a  tender 
plant.     It  does  well  in  the  Northern 
States   after  the    plants  are   fairly 
started.     Occasionally  we  can  grow  Fi£- 16-— FBPFEB.-LABGB 
them    by  sowing  the    seed   in  the    BELL  °B  BULI"NOSB- 
open    ground,   about   the   time  we   plant  melons  and 
cucumbers;  but,  as  a  rule,  it  i^  better  to  start  the  plants 
5 


98  GARDENING   FOE   YOUNG   AND    OLD. 

in  a  hot-bed,  or  in  a  box  in  the  house.  When  the,  ground 
is  thoroughly  warm,  and  all  danger  of  frosty  nights  is 
passed,  set  them  out  carefully  in  the  warmest,  lightest, 
and  best  soil  you  have.  Plant  in  rows  twenty-four  to 
thirty  inches  apart,  and  from  twelve  to  fifteen  inches 
apart  in  the  rows.  Keep  the  ground  clean  and  mellow 
by  the  frequent  use  of  the  cultivator  and  hoe.  The  best 
variety  is  the  Bell,  or  Bull -nosed.  It  is  extensively  used 
for  pickling  and  for  seasoning.  Cayenne  pepper,  a 
smaller-fruited  variety,  is  cultivated  in  the  same  way. 


POTATOES. 

As  a  garden  cr°p,  potatoes  are  seldom  grown,  except 
for  the  early  market  or  for  home  use  in  summer.  The 
later  varieties  are  grown  as  a  field  crop.  It  often  hap- 
pens, however,  that  the  gardener  can  plant  potatoes  on 
land  from  which  some  early  crop  has  been  removed.  A 
very  good  crop  can  be  grown  here  when  planted  as  late 
as  from  June  15th  to  July  4th;  but  for  late  plant- 
ing, it  is  best  to  use  the  early  varieties.  For  an  early 
crop,  it  will  pay  well  to  take  considerable  pains  in  pre- 
paring and  manuring  the  soil.  The  land  should  be 
made  ready  the  fall  previous,  and  the  moment  the  frost 
is  out  of  the  ground,  plant  the  potatoes  in  rows  twenty- 
four  to  thirty  inches  apart,  and  from  ten  to  twelve  inches 
apart  in  the  row.  If  the  land  is  very  rich,  and  you  in- 
tend .to  dig  the  potatoes  as  early  as  possible,  thicker 
planting  will  give  a  larger  crop,  say  rows  eighteen  inches 
apart,  and  the  potatoes  dropped  eight  inches  apart  in 
the  row. 

I  have  been  in  the  habit,  every  year,  of  planting  pota- 
toes the  first  moment  the  land  could  be  worked,  and  it 
has  frequently  happened  that  we  had  a  very  severe  and 
long-continued  frost  afterwards,  but  the  potatoes  were 


PUMPKINS.  99 

never  injured  in  the  ground ;  they  always  came  up 
strong  and  healthy.  Occasionally  we  have  a  frosty  night 
in  the  spring  which  cuts  down  our  early  potatoes,  but 
those  who  plant  moderately  early  are  nearly  as  liable  to 
be  caught  as  those  who  plant  just  as  early  as  possible. 

Potatoes  can  be  readily  transplanted,  and  we  frequently 
start  a  few  hills  in  the  hot-bed,  and  transplant  them  into 
the  open  ground  when  the  tops  are  four  or  five  inches 
high.  By  covering  them  with  a  hand-glass,  or  shading 
them  for  a  few  days  with  a  muslin-covered  box,  these 
transplanted  potatoes  will  give  a  very  early  crop.  It 
need  hardly  be  said  that  potatoes  should  be  well  culti- 
vated and  kept  entirely  free  from  weeds.  For  the  early 
crops  especially,  the  land  must  be  very  rich,  and  kept  scru- 
pulously clean  and  no  bugs  suffered  to  feed  on  the  leaves. 

The  varieties  are  too  numerous  to  mention,  and  every 
year  brings  new  candidates  for  popular  favor.  The  best 
early  varieties  that  have  been  generally  tried,  are  the 
Early  Rose,  and  Early  Vermont,  which  is  so  much  like  the 
Early  Rose  that  it  is  difficult  to  tell  them  apart.  The 
Beauty  of  Hebron  is  one  of  the  newer  varieties,  early,  pro- 
ductive; it  is  of  good  quality,  and  promises  to  be  very 
desirable.  Gardeners  should  stick  to  the  well-tried  sorts, 
testing  the  newer  varieties  only  on  a  small  scale. 

PUMPKINS. 

The  common  field  pumpkin  is  usually  grown  as  a  sec- 
ondary or  stolen  crop  among  corn.  Careful  farmers, 
however,  who  wish  to  cultivate  their  corn  thoroughly, 
are  getting  out  of  the  habit  of  planting  pumpkins  with 
the  corn.  They  think  it  better  to  devote  a  piece  of  land 
entirely  to  the  crop.  A  large  yield  can  be  produced  in 
this  way,  and  the  pumpkins  will  be  larger,  sweeter,  and 
better  ripened.  The  better  varieties  of  pumpkins  can  sel- 
dom be  advantageously  grown  among  corn.  They  should 


100 


GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 


be  planted  alone,  and  the  richer  and  the  better  the 
soil,  and  the  more  thoroughly  it  is  worked  previous 
to  planting,  the  more  profitable  will  be  the  crop.  Plant 
in  rows  from  eight  to  ten  feet  apart,  and  three  to  four 
feet  apart  in  the  rows,  dropping  eight  or  ten  seeds  in  a 

hill.  Afterward  pull  oat 
all  the  weak  plants,  and 
those  injured  by  the 
Striped-bug  or  Squash- 
bug,  leaving  three  or 
four  good  strong  plants 
in  a  hill.  Keep  the 
land  clean  by  the  fre- 
quent use  of  the  culti- 
vator and  hoe  as  long  as 
you  can  get  between  the 
rows  of  plants.  The  best 
variety  for  planting  in 
the  corn  field  is  what  is 
known  as  the  Connecti- 
cut Field  Pumpkin.  For  growing  on  land  entirely  devoted 
to  the  crop,  the  best  varieties  are  the  Connecticut  Field, 
the  Large  Cheese,  and  the  New  Jersey  Sweet  Pumpkin. 
The  Possum-nose  Pumpkin  is  a  new  variety,  which  I  ob- 
tained from  the  Hon.  Horace  Ankenny,  of  Ohio.  It  is 
best  grown  on  land  entirely  devoted  to  it,  though  in  Ohio 
and  farther  South  it  is  grown  among  corn.  It  is  very 
productive,  a  rampant  grower,  of  good  size,  and  is  of 
good  quality,  but  its  greatest  merit  is,  that  it  will 
keep  the  year  round. 

EADISHES. 

My  own  plan  of  raising  radishes  is,  to  prepare  the  land 
carefully  in  the  fall,  working  in  a  good  dressing  of  well- 
rotted  manure.  A  light  sandy  loam  is  the  best,  but  any 


Fig.  17. — POSSUM-NOSE  PUMPKIN. 


KADISHES:    J  '  101 

soil  that  is  dry,  mellow  and  rich,  will  produce  good  rad- 
ishes in  a  favorable  season.  New  soil,  full  of  leaf -mould, 
is  particularly  suitable  for  the  crop. 

Soil  which  has  been  well  prepared  in  the  fall  we  do  not 
plow  again  in  the  spring.  It  is  simply  cultivated  or  gang- 
plowed,  four  or  five  inches  deep,  and  repeatedly  harrowed 
and  rolled,  until  not  a  lump  remains.  We  usually  sow  four 
hundred  pounds  of  superphosphate  of  lime,  broadcast,  per 


Fig.  18. — EARLY  RADISHES. 

1.  Scarlet  Turnip.   2.  Rose  Olive-Shaped.   3.  French  Breakfast.   4.  Long  White 
Naples.    5.  Long  Scarlet  Short  Top. 

acre.  Set  a  line  for  the  first  row,  and  sow  the  seed  in 
shallow  drills,  twenty-one  inches  apart,  dropping  about 
three  seeds  to  each  inch  of  row.  As  the  radishes  come 
up  quickly,  no  weeding,  and  very  little  hoeing  will  be  re- 
quired on  clean,  well-prepared  land,  but  we  run  the  horse- 
hoe  repeatedly  between  the  rows,  commencing  as  soon  as 
they  can  be  traced,  and  repeat  the  operation  twice  a  week. 
This  thorough  cultivation  favors  rapid  growth,  and  with 


'GARDENING  FOE  YOUNG  AND  OLD. 

the  aid  of  superphosphate  and  rich  soil,  soon  enables  the 
plant  to  get  out  of  reach  of  the  little  Black-beetle. 

It  is  very  important  to  get  good  seed,  raised  from 
selected  plants,  for  it  is  indeed  exceedingly  rare  to  buy 
seed  that  does  not  produce  from  ten  to  thirty  per  cent  of 
poor,  worthless  radishes.  Not  unfrequently  the  crop  is 
so  poor  that  one  is  forced  to  believe  that  the  seed-grower 
had  drawn  out  all  the  good  radishes  for  market,  and  al- 
lowed all  the  poor  ones  to  run  up  for  seed. 

The  method  of  raising  radishes,  above  described,  is  not 
often  practised  by  market  gardeners.  They  think  their 
land  is  too  valuable,  and  they  aim  to  grow  them  as  a  sec- 
ondary crop.  They  sometimes  sow  the  radish  seed  care- 
fully and  evenly,  broadcast,  on  the  asparagus  bed,  and 
sometimes  they  sow  the  seed,  broadcast,  on  land  drilled 
in  with  beets,  or  between  the  rows  of  early  cabbages,  but 
in  the  ordinary  farm-garden  it  is  best  to  devote  the  en- 
tire land  to  the  crop.  Sow  the  radish  seed  in  rows,  cul- 
tivate thoroughly,  and  by  the  middle  of  June  the  crop 
will  be  marketed,  and  the  land  can  be  plowed  and  used 
for  other  crops,  such  as  Swedes  turnips,  beets,  cabbages, 
etc.  The  best  varieties  of  radish  for  home  use,  are  the 
Bound  Scarlet  Turnip,  New  French  Breakfast,  and  Kose 
Olive-shaped.  The  White  Turnip  radish  is  similar  to 
the  Red  Turnip,  except  in  color.  For  market  the  Long 
Scarlet  Short  Top  is  one  of  the  best  varieties. 

RAISING   RADISH   SEED. 

As  a  rule,  nearly  all  our  radish  seed  is  imported  from 
Europe.  It  is  easily  grown,  and  as  large  quantities  of  it 
are  annually  required,  it  would  pay  any  young  man  won- 
derfully well  to  grow  radish  seed,  and  take  special  pains 
to  grow  it  only  from  the  most  perfect  roots.  The  seed 
should  be  sown  in  rows,  from  twenty-one  to  twenty-five 
inches  apart.  The  ground  should  be  rich  and  clean. 


EADISHES.  103 

Sow  the  best  seed  that  can  be  obtained,  early  in  the 
spring,  dropping  two  or  three  seeds  to  each  inch  of  row. 
Keep  the  ground  thoroughly  cultivated,  and  when  the 
plants  grow  large  enough  to  show  their  character,  thin 
them,  leaving  only  the  handsomest  and  best  roots.  I  know 
this  is  easier  said  than  done,  but  it  is  well  worth  all  the 
time  and  labor  it  will  cost.  It  will  be  necessary  to  go 
over  the  piece  several  times,  as  it  is  necessary  to  pull  out 
six  or  eight  radishes  for  every  one  that  is  ultimately  left. 
If  we  leave  two  or  three  plants  for  every  foot  of  row  they 
will  ba  quite  thick  enough.  Nothing  more  is  required, 
except  to  kill  the  weeds,  until  the  crop  of  seed  is  ready 
to  harvest. 

When  the  pods  begin  to  wither,  the  crop  can  be  cut 
with  a  sharp  corn  knife,  or  mown  with  a  scythe,  or  better 
still,  it  may  be  cut  with  a  self-raking  reaper,  which  throws 
the  stems  into  bundles  from  ten  to  fifteen  feet  apart.  In 
our  dry,  hot  climate,  the  bundles  can  be  allowed  to  care  on 
the  ground,  where  they  are  left  by  the  reaper,  turning 
them  occasionally  to  prevent  their  moulding  underneath. 
When  thoroughly  dry,  draw  them  into  the  barn  and  stow 
them  away  on  a  scaffold,  where  the  air  can  circulate  through 
them,  and  let  them  remain  until  winter,  thrashing  them 
with  a  flail  or  thrashing  machine  during  frosty  weather. 

A  thrashing  machine,  which  tears  the  pods  to  pieces,  is 
better  than  a  flail.  The  seed  is  easily  cleaned  with  a  fan- 
ning mill  and  the  necessary  sieves.  The  seed-grower 
should  confine  himself  to  two  or  three  of  the  best  varie- 
ties, and  it  is  best  for  him  to  raise  only  one  variety  at  a 
time.  The  seed  retains  its  vitality  for  three  years  or 
more,  and  it  is  better  to  raise  three  acres  of  one  variety 
every  third  year  than  to  raise  one  acre  each  of  three  va- 
rieties every  year.  He  will  have  just  as  much  land  in 
radish  seed  every  year,  but  he  can  manage  the  three  acres 
of  one  variety  in  one  piece,  with  far  less  labor  than  he 
can  raise  an  acre  of  each  variety  in  three  separate  fields. 


104 


GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 


WINTER  RADISHES. 

Winter  radishes  are  attracting  considerable  attention 
of  late.  They  are  best  sown  in  rows,  twenty-one  inches 
apart,  and  cultivated  with  a  horse-hoe.  They  are  sown 
from  the  middle  of  July  to  the  first  of  September.  Drop 
the  seed  in  the  drill,  three  or  four  to  each  inch,  and  if 
the  weather  is  very  dry,  and  the  ground  not  in  the  very 


Fig.  19.— WINTER  RADISHES. 

6.  Mammoth  White  Winter.    7.  Chinese  White  Winter.    8.  Black  Spanish  Turnip. 
9.  Chinese  Kose  Winter. 

best  condition,  I  would  sow  five  or  six  seeds  to  each  inch 
in  hopes  of  securing  a  stand  and  escaping  the  ravages  of 
the  Black-beetle.  Cultivate  as  soon  as  the  rows  can  be 
distinguished,  and  hoe  if  necessary;  when  the  plants  be- 
gin to  crowd  each  other,  thin  out,  so  as  to  ultimately  leave 
them  from  three  to  four  inches  apart.  The  roots  are  pre- 
served for  winter  use  in  barrels  or  boxes  of  sand  in  the 
cellar,  or  they  can  be  pitted  in  the  garden,  taking  the 


RHUBARB.  105 

precaution  to  scatter  among  them  not  less  than  a  bushel 
of  sand  or  dry  earth  to  each  two  or  three  bushels  of  rad- 
ishes. Cover  with  nine  inches  of  straw  and  about  six 
inches  of  soil,  and  just  before  winter  sets  in,  put  on  an- 
other layer  of  straw  and  cover  with  six  inches  more  of 
soil,  or  enough  to  completely  hide  and  cover  all  the 
straw. 

The  leading  varieties  of  winter  radishes  are  the  Chi- 
nese White,  the  Chinese  Rose,  Calif  ornia  Mammoth  White, 
and  the  Black  Spanish.  The  latter  is  a  very  hardy  va- 
riety, somewhat  harsh  to  ordinary  tastes,  but  seems  to  be 
highly  relished  by  those  who  like  it.  The  California  Mam- 
moth White  is  a  larger  and  somewhat  milder  variety,  and 
would  suit  ordinary  tastes  better  than  the  Black  Spanish. 
The  seed  is  grown  by  setting  out  some  of  the  best  selected 
roots  in  the  spring,  in  rows  two  feet  apart,  and  six  inches 
distant  in  the  row;  harvest  and  thrash  the  same  as  direct- 
ed for  summer  radish. 


RHUBARB. 

When  raised  from  seed,  Rhubarb  is  sown  as  early  in 
the  spring  as  the  ground  can  be  properly  worked.  Pre- 
pare the  soil  as  directed  for  raising  celery  plants.  Any 
one  who  can  raise  these  well,  can  raise  good  rhubarb 
plants.  If  convenient,  the  seed  may  be  sown  in  a  box  in 
the  house,  or  in  a  moderately  warm  hot-bed,  and  the 
plants  set  out  in  rows  twenty-one  inches  apart,  and  two 
to  three  inches  apart  in  the  row,  as  soon  as  the  weather 
and  soil  will  permit.  The  land  can  not  be  too  rich,  and 
if  it  is  not  intended  to  use  the  horse-hoe  between  the 
rows,  they  may  be  from  twelve  to  fifteen  inches  apart, 
and  kept  clean  by  the  frequent  use  of  the  hoe.  When 
sown  in  the  open  ground,  the  plants  need  not  be  trans- 
planted, but  should  be  thinned  out  to  three  inches  apart 


106  GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

in  the  row.  As  in  raising  celery  plants  out  of  doors,  it 
is  impossible  to  make  the  land  too  rich.  I  have  worked 
in  well-rotted  manure  at  the  rate  of  one  hundred  two- 
horse  loads  per  acre,  and  it  pays  to  do  so.  Few  people 
understand  how  much  manure  land  will  hold.  An  acre 
of  soil,  ten  inches  deep,  weighs  about  two  million  pounds; 
if  you  work  in  one  hundred  tons  of  manure  per  acre, 
there  will  be  only  one  pound  of  manure  to  ten  pounds  of 
soil;  and  you  can  put  one  hundred  loads  of  manure  on  an 
acre  and  work  it  so  thoroughly  that  one  could  not  tell, 
without  careful  examination,  that  the  land  had  been  ma- 
nured at  all.  That  is  the  way  to  prepare  land  for  raising 
celery  and  rhubarb  plants.  On  such  land,  if  sown  as 
early  as  possible  in  the  spring,  and  the  plants  carefully 
hoed  and  kept  entirely  free  from  weeds,  the  plants  will 
be  large  enough  to  set  out  in  their  permanent  bed  the  fol- 
lowing spring. 

Ehubarb  is  more  generally  propagated  by  a  division 
of  the  roots,  than  from  the  seeds.  When  propagated 
from  the  roots,  divide  up  the  old  root  so  as  to  leave  one 
bud  or  crown  on  each  piece.  The  roots  can  be  set  out 
in  the  permanent  bed  either  in  autumn  or  early  in  spring; 
the  fall  perhaps  is  the  preferable  time,  especially  in  the 
Southern  States.  If  the  permanent  bed  is  made  from 
plants  raised  from  seed,  the  spring  is  the  better  time. 
Whether  made  from  roots  or  seedling  plants,  the  perma- 
nent bed  cannot  be  made  too  rich.  A  hundred  loads  of 
manure  per  acre,  is  none  too  much,  and  the  soil  should 
be  thoroughly  worked  to  a  depth  not  less  than  ten  inches. 
Set  out  the  roots  or  plants  in  rows  four  feet  apart  each 
way;  this  will  require  two  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
twenty-one  per  acre.  Make  the  rows  straight,  and  set 
out  the  roots  so  that  the  crown  is  two  or  three  inches  be- 
low the  surface.  The  first  year  no  stalks  should  be 
pulled,  keeping  the  ground  thoroughly  cultivated  and 
free  from  weeds.  A  row  of  radishes  might  be  sown  between 


SALSIFY.  107 

the  rows  of  rhubarb,  or  cabbage  plants,  or  lettuce  set  there, 
but  it  is  better  to  let  the  rhubarb  have  the  whole  ground 
the  first  year  and  certainly  afterwards.  Some  varieties  of 
rhubarb  have  a  disposition  to  throw  up  numerous  seed 
stalks;  these  should  be  cut  off  as  they  appear,  as  they  ab- 
sorb much  of  the  sap  which  should  be  used  for  the 
rapid  growth  of  the  edible  stalks.  The  varieties  of  rhu- 
barb generally  grown  in  this  country,  are  Linnaeus, 
which  is  of  good  size,  good  quality,  and  early,  the 
Victoria,  which  is  larger  and  later,  and  of  excellent  qual- 
ity. The  Gaboon's  Seedling  is  a  late  and  very  large  va- 
riety, which  was  extensively  sold  some  years  ago,  under 
the  deceptive  name  of  "Wine  Plant." 


SALSIFY. 

Salsify,  often  called  Vegetable  Oyster,  is  rarely  grown 
to  perfection.  When  well  grown  and  properly  cooked, 
it  is  a  healthful  and  delicious  vegetable,  and  deserves  to  be 
much  more  generally  and  extensively  cultivated.  The  cul- 
tivation of  salsify  is  precisely  the  same  as  for  parsnips.  It 
is  important  to  get  good  seed  grown  from  carefully  selected 
roots.  The  seed  can  be  sown  as  early  in  the  spring  as  the 
ground  is  in  good  working  condition,  and  I  have  sown  it  as 
late  as  the  first  week  in  June  with  excellent  results.  As  a 
rule,  however,  it  is  desirable  to  sow  it  early.  The  land 
should  be  prepared  in  the  autumn,  and  it  can  not  be 
made  too  deep,  or  too  rich,  and  mellow.  It  will  do  well 
on  a  great  variety  of  soils.  I  have  had  a  fine  crop  on  a 
well  worked,  heavily  manured  clay,  but  as  a  rule  it  is 
better  to  sow  it  on  a  sandy  loam,  heavily  manured  the 
fall  previous  or  early  in  the  spring.  I  sow  in  rows, 
twenty  inches  apart.  The  seed  is  long  and  slim,  and  few 
drills  will  sow  it  evenly  without  wasting  the  seed,  and  as 
that  is  quite  expensive,  it  is  better  to  sow  it  by  hand, 


108       GARDENING  FOR  YOUNG  AND  OLD. 

dropping  about  two  seeds  to  an  inch  of  row,  and  covering 
half  an  inch  deep;  if  the  weather  is  dry,  and  the  soil  very 
light,  it  may  be  covered  an  inch  or  an  inch  and  a  half, 
and  in  dry  weather  it  is  desirable  to  roll  the  soil  after 
sowing.  As  soon  as  the  plants  appear,  hoe  lightly  on 
each  side  of  the  row,  and  a  few  days  later,  run  the  horse- 
hoe  or  cultivator  between  the  rows;  suffer  not  a  weed  to 
grow,  and  ultimately  thin  out  the  plants,  leaving  them 
from  four  to  six  inches  apart.  As  usually  grown,  the 
roots  are  quite  small,  because  the  plants  are  left  too  thick 
in  the  row.  Grown  as  I  have  recommended,  the  crop 
requires  considerable  land,  but  the  roots  will  be  so  large 
and  fine,  as  to  command  an  extra  price,  and  much  more 
than  pay  the  extra  cost  of  the  land.  Salsify  is  a  good 
crop  for  the  field-garden,  where  land  is  comparatively 
cheap.  The  roots  bring  the  highest  price  in  spring. 
Like  parsnips,  salsify  can  be  left  in  the  ground  all  winter; 
but  at  least  a  portion  should  be  dug  in  the  fall,  and  kept 
in  pits  or  in  the  cellar,  as  recommended  for  parsnips. 
The  seed  can  be  grown  as  recommended  for  parsnips, 
though  the  roots  may  be  left  thicker  in  the  row,  as  the 
stalks  do  not  grow  more  than  three  feet  high.  It  is  well 
to  have  the  rows  forty-two  inches  apart  for  convenience 
in  gathering.  The  seeds  do  not  all  mature  at  the  same 
time,  and  it  is  usual  to  go  over  the  piece  two  or  three 
times  and  cut  off  the  heads  of  seed  as  soon  as  they  turn 
brown.  There  is  but  one  variety  of  salsify.  We  must 
look  to  careful  selection  of  roots  to  give  us  a  good  strain. 
There  is  an  abundant  opportunity  for  improvement  in 
this  direction,  and  I  hope  some  of  the  boys  will  give  us 
an  improved  salsify — not  in  name,  but  in  reality.  It  can 
easily  be  done,  by  continued  selection  of  the  very  best 
and  handsomest  roots  for  seed,  rigorously  rejecting  all 
that  are  not  perfect. 


SEA   KALE.  109 

SEA    KALE. 

* 

Sea  Kale  is  a  most  delicious  vegetable,  which  sooner  or 
later  will  certainly  be  extensively  cultivated  in  this  coun- 
try. It  belongs  to  the  same  family  as  the  cabbage.  Its 
shoots  only  are  eaten,  and  that  only  after  being  forced  or 
blanched.  It  is  a  good  deal  of  work  to  produce  sea  kale 
in  perfection,  but  when  properly  grown,  it  is  as  tender  as 
asparagus  arid  as  mild  as  cauliflower.  Our  climate  is 
well  adapted  for  its  production  in  abundance,  and  of  the 
choicest  quality.  When  grown  from  seed,  mark  out  the 
bed  into  rows  three  feet  apart,  then  run  a  fifteen  or 
eighteen-inch  marker  across  the  rows,  and  put  a  dozen 
seeds  where  the  lines  cross,  and  cover  half  an  inch  deep. 
When  the  plants  appear,  hoe,  weed,  and  thin,  leaving 
three  or  four  plants  in  each  hill. 

Sea  Kale  is  a  perennial  plant,  and  when  the  bed  is 
once  made,  it  will  last  for  many  years.  It  is  propagated 
from  the  roots  as  well  as  from  seed,  and  where  those  can 
be  obtained,  a  year's  time  can  be  saved.  When  propa- 
gated from  the  roots  of  eld  plants,  it  is  usual  to  cut 
these  into  lengths  of  two  or  three  inches.  In  early 
spring,  place  the  pieces  in  a  box  in  the  house  or  in  tbe 
hot-bed,  covering  them  very  lightly  with  damp  moss  or 
light  mould.  As  soon  as  they  start  to  grow,  and  the 
weather  is  suitable,  set  out  in  a  bed  eighteen  by  thirty- 
six  inches  apart.  No  crop  will  be  produced  the  first 
year,  but  the  second  year  a  few  shoots  can  be  removed 
without  weakening  the  plants;  the  third  year  they  will 
produce  a  full  crop.  The  plant  needs  protection  during 
the  winter.  A  good  plan  is,  to  cover  the  bed  or  plants 
with  leaves  or  manure  or  leaf-mould ;  this  will  protect  the 
plants,  and  the  shoots,  as  they  push  through  this  cover- 
ing, will  be  blanched  and  be  ready  for  use.  If  the 
plants  are  very  vigorous,  a  greater  depth  of  covering  or 
blanching  material  will  be  needed. 


110  GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

SPINACH. 

Spinach  is  an  important  crop  in  the  garden,  whether 
grown  for  home  use  or  for  market.  It  is  of  most  value 
early  in  the  spring,  and  for  this  purpose  must  be  sown 
the  autumn  previous,  on  the  richest  and  best  land.  You 
can  not  work  the  soil  too  thoroughly.  The  seed  should 
be  sown  in  rows  from  twelve  to  twenty-one  inches  apart, 
the  latter  distance  if  a  horse-hoe  is  to  be  used  in  culti- 
vating it.  In  this  section  we  sow  about  the  first  of  Sep- 
tember, and  as  the  ground  is  apt  to  be  very  dry,  a  good 
deal  of  work  is  sometimes  required  to  break  up  all  the 
clods  and  get  the  soil  fine  and  mellow;  but  stick  to  it 
until  the  object  is  accomplished.  By  bestowing  labor 
enough,  you  can  get  the  soil  into  good  condition.  Do 
not  wait  for  a  rain  to  help  you.  Rain  will  not  do  much 
good  on  the  hard,  unbroken,  or  cloddy  soil ;  but  break 
up  the  land,  crush  the  lumps,  pulverize  the  soil,  and 
then  even  a  slight  shower  will  penetrate  this  fine  soil, 
and  make  it  moist  enough  to  start  the  seed.  Sow  the 
seed  pretty  thick,  say  three  seeds  to  each  inch  of  row; 
this  is  ten  times  as  many  as  are  necessary,  but  it  is  very 
desirable  to  have  plants  enough.  Certainly  it  is  very  un- 
desirable and  annoying  to  have  any  gaps  in  the  row.  As 
soon  as  the  plants  appear,  hoe  or  cultivate  between  the 
rows — the  more  frequently,  the  better.  When  the  plants 
are  fairly  started,  thin  out,  leaving  them  only  four  or 
five  inches  apart  in  the  row.  If  desired,  the  plants  may 
be  thinned  out  with  a  sharp-pointed  onion  hoe  from  one 
to  two  inches  apart.  When  large  enough,  half  the  re- 
maining plants  may  be  cut  out  for  use  in  the  fall,  or  just 
before  winter  sets  in,  at  which  time,  and  during  the 
winter,  spinach  often  brings  a  high  price. 

N.  B. — As  I  said  before,  you  can  not  make  the  land 
too  rich  for  spinach.  It  is  very  desirable  to  work  into 


SPINACH.  Ill 

the  surface  soil  twenty  or  thirty  loads  of  manure  per 
acre.  I  would  work  it  into  the  soil  not  more  than  four 
inches  deep;  but  recollect  it  must  be  worked  in  and  com- 
pletely broken  up,  and  so  mixed  with  the  soil  that  you 
would  hardly  know,  except  from  the  loose,  mellow  ap- 
pearance of  the  land,  that  any  manure  had  been  applied. 

Many  fail  in  their  first  efforts  to  grow  spinach  in  the 
autumn  for  use  in  spring.  The  reason  is,  they  do  not 
take  sufficient  pains  in  preparing  and  mellowing  the 
land;  they  do  not  work  in  sufficient 
manure;  they  do  not  sow  early 
enough;  they  do  not  sow  seed 
enough;  or,  if  the  weather  is  dry, 
they  do  not  roll  the  soil,  or  press 
it  down  hard  enough  after  the  seed 
is  sown.  In  this  section,  just  be- 
fore winter  sets  in,  it  is  generally  desirable  to  scatter 
a  thin  layer  of  straw  or  horse  litter  over  the  plants, 
say  three  inches  thick,  as  a  protection.  It  is  not  always 
necessary,  but  will  do  no  harm,  and  in  some  seasons 
may  prevent  loss. 

For  summer  use,  spinach  is  sown  in  rows  a  foot  apart, 
early  in  the  spring,  and  again  every  two  weeks  for  a  suc- 
cession. In  warm  weather  it  soon  runs  up  to  seed,  and 
as  we  have,  or  may  have,  an  abundance  of  other  green 
vegetables,  it  is  not  worth  while  to  sow  spinach  largely 
in  the  spring.  Still,  every  garden  should  have  a  few 
rows  or  a  small  bed  of  it.  There  are  two  varieties  com- 
monly cultivated,  the  Prickly-seeded  or  Winter,  and  the 
Eound-seeded  or  Summer.  One  is  just  as  good  as  the 
other,  either  for  spring  or  winter,  and  the  Prickly  or 
Winter  variety  should  be  dropped.  The  Round  or  Sum- 
mer will  stand  the  winter  just  as  well  as  the  Prickly,  and 
some  prefer  it,  thinking  it  is  more  easily  sown  with  the 
drill.  If  sown  as  thickly  as  it  ought  to  be  sown,  a  good 
drill  will  sow  either  kind  evenly  and  well. 


113  GABDEKING   FOB   YOUKG   AND   OLD. 

SQUASH.— SUMMER. 

For  summer  use,  nearly  all  the  varieties  of  Squash  gen- 
erally cultivated  are  of  the  bush  or  dwarf  kind.  They 
take  up  far  less  room  in  the  garden  than  the  running 
varieties.  The  cultivation  of  the  bush  squash  is  exceed- 
ingly simple;  it  requires  good,  but  not  excessively  rich, 
land,  and  the  seed  should  not  be  sown  until  the  soil  is 
quite  warm  and  all  danger  of  frost  is  passed. 

In  my  own  garden  I  drill  in  the  Summer  squash  in 
rows  three  feet  apart,  dropping  a  seed  to  each  two  or 
three  inches  of  row,  and  when  the  plants  begin  to  crowd 
each  other,  I  thin  out  the  weakest,  and  leave  the  strongest 


Fig.  21. — EARLY  CBOOKNBOK. 

and  those  least  riddled  by  the  Striped-bug.  One  good 
plant  to  each  eight  or  ten  inches  of  row  is  thick  enough. 
Generally,  however,  summer  squashes  are  planted  in  hills 
three  feet  one  way  and  two  feet  apart  in  the  row.  Put  a 
dozen  seeds  in  each  hill,  and  ultimately  leave  only  three 
of  the  strongest  plants  in  the  hill.  Keep  the  ground  well 
cultivated  and  hoed,  pulling  up  a  little  fresh  soil  towards 
the  plants  to  smother  any  small  weeds  that  can  not  be 
reached  with  the  hoe.  A  tablespoonful  of  superphos- 
phate, well  mixed  with  the  soil  in  each  hill  before  plant- 
ing the  seed,  stimulates  the  growth  of  the  vines,  and, 
what  is  still  more  important,  it  favors  the  early  maturity 
of  the  fruit. 

When  grown  extensively  for  market  in  the  field-garden, 
prepare  the  land  in  the  very  best  manner.  A  light,  warm, 


SQUASH— WIKTER.  113 

sandy  soil  is  best,  but  the  squash  will  do  well  on  heavier 
soil,  provided  it  is  dry  and  thoroughly  worked  until  it  is 
fine  and  mellow.  It  is  seldom  that  such  soil  is  worked 
sufficiently.  Comparatively  few  farmers  have  learned 
how  important  it  is  to  reduce  soil  to  the  finest  and  mel- 
lowest tilth.  In  the  field,  I  would 
mark  oS  the  rows  forty-two  inches 
apart,  and  drill  in  the  seed.  I 
think  this  is  better  than  planting 
in  hills,  but  would  plant  in  hills 
if  more  convenient.  All  that 
needs  to  be  done  is,  to  keep  the 
land  thoroughly  cultivated  with  Fig.  22. 

a    horse-hoe    between    the   rows,      EAKLT  BUSH  SCOLLOP. 
and  thin  out  the  plants  in  the  row  as  previously  directed. 
The  best  varieties  of  summer  squash  are:  the  Early 
Bush  Crooknecked  and  the  Early  Bush  Scollop. 


SQUASH.— WINTER. 

Winter  squashes  have  running  vines,  and  require  richer 
land  and  more  space  than  the  bush  varieties.  They  are 
an  important  crop  in  the  field-garden.  The  market  gar- 
deners on  high-priced  land,  near  large  cities,  can  rarely 
afford  to  raise  winter  squashes  largely.  They  should  be 
grown  on  well-prepared  farm  land.  The  fruit  has  not  to 
be  marketed  from  day  to  day,  like  summer  squashes,  but, 
like  cabbages,  parsnips,  carrots,  and  potatoes,  can  be  sent 
in  large  quantities  at  once  to  near  or  distant  markets. 

Many  farmers  who  try  to  raise  squashes  fail  to  realize 
their  expectations,  simply  because  they  do  not  prepare 
the  land  with  sufficient  care,  or  manure  highly  enough. 
If  the  land  is  not  in  the  very  best  condition,  the  plants 
do  not  grow  with  the  necessary  vigor,  and  soon  fall  a 
prey  to  the  remorseless  Squash-bug. 


114 


GARDENING   FOB   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 


Light,  sandy  land  is  best  for  squashes,  but  it  should  be 
manured  either  directly  for  the  crop  or  for  the  one  pre- 
ceding it;  in  the  latter  ease,  it  is  desirable  to  manure 
again  in  the  hill,  thoroughly  mixing  the  manure  with  the 
soil  where  the  hill  is  to  be,  for  a  space  not  less  than  two 
or  three  square  feet.  Two  tablespoonfuls  of  superphos- 
phate to  each  hill,  well  mixed  with  the  soil,  in  addition 
to  the  manure,  will  prove  very  beneficial.  Plant  the 


Fig.  23.— HUBBABIX 


Fig.  24.— MATTOTEHEAD. 


squashes  in  rows  ten  feet  apart,  and  four  feet  apart  in  the 
rows.  Plant  eight  or  ten  seeds  in  each  hill,  and  cover 
from  one  to  two  inches  deep,  according  to  the  nature  of 
the  soil.  If  the  weather  is  dry  and  the  soil  very  light, 
cover  from  two  to  three  inches  deep,  and  make  the  soil  all 
about  the  hill  firm  and  smooth,  with  the  back  of  the  hoe. 
As  soon  as  the  plants  begin  to  crack  the  soil,  dust  a  little 
plaster  over  them,  and  in  two  or  three  days  go  over 


SQUASH — WINTEE.  115 

the  piece  again,  early  in  the  morn  ing,  while  the  dew  is  on, 
and  dust  on  more  plaster,  doing  the  work  carefully  and 
thoroughly.  The  plaster  is  a  good  fertilizer  for  the 
vines  and  helps  to  keep  off  the  bugs. 

All  we  have  to  do  after  this,  is  to  fight  the  weeds  and 
the  bugs.  Not  a  weed  should  be  suffered  to  grow.  Ex- 
amine the  plants  frequently  and  crush  all  the  eggs  you 
see  on  the  leaves,  and,  as  the  plants  begin  to  crowd  each 
other,  pinch  off  the  weakest  and  those  most  injured  by 
the  bugs.  If  you  can  ultimately  secure  two  .good,  strong, 
vigorous  plants  in  each  hill,  and  the  land  is  thoroughly 
cultivated  and  free  from  weeds,  you  are  almost  certain  of 
a  large  and  profitable  crop. 

The  best  varieties  for  late  fall  and  winter  use  are  the 
Marblehead  and  Hubbard.  When  well  grown  from  true 
seed,  both  are  so  good  that  it  is  not  easy  to  tell  which  is 
the  better.  The  Marblehead  is  quite  as  large  as  the  Hub- 
bard,  the  shell  is  a  little  harder  and  smoother;  the  flesh 
is  a  somewhat  lighter  colored,  but  equally  dry,  sweet, 
and  fine  flavored.  The  Hubbard  is  the  more  popular 
market  variety. 


SAVING   SQUASH   SEED. 

No  one  should  attempt  to  grow  Squashes  for  seed  un- 
less he  can  keep  the  variety  completely  isolated.  Where 
this  can  be  done,  the  business  is  quite  profitable — or  at 
any  rate  it  would  be,  as  soon  as  the  seedsmen  and  squash- 
growers  became  cognizant  of  the  fact  that  your  seed 
can  be  depended  on  as  true  to  name.  The  main  point 
is,  to  secure  stock  seed.  I  mean  by  this,  seed  that  has 
been  carefully  bred  for  several  generations.  A  seedsman 
who  has  such  seed  will  not  sell  it,  he  will  keep  it  for  the 
exclusive  purpose  of  raising  seed. 


116  GARDENING    FOR   Y.OUNG    AND   OLD. 

SWEET  POTATOES. 

Sweet  Potatoes  are  essentially  a  southern  crop,  and 
their  cultivation  in  the  Southern  States  is  an  easy  and 
simple  matter.  At  the  North,  good  crops  can  be  grown, 
but  it  is  necessary  to  raise  the  plants  in  a  greenhouse  or 
hot-bed.  Market  gardeners,  who  grow  the  plants  for 
sale,  as  they  do  tomato  plants,  find  the  business  quite 
profitable,  as  there  is  a  yearly  increasing  demand  for  the 
plants,  which  are  often  sent  long  distances  by  express. 
The  plants  are  easily  grown  in  the  hot-bed,  the  chief  dif- 
ficulty being  to  preserve  the  potatoes  intended  for  seed 
through  the  winter.  They  cannot  be  kept  in  a  cool, 
damp  cellar,  like  common  potatoes.  They  should  be 
kept  in  a  dry  room,  where  the  thermometer  never  gets 
below  fo^ty  degrees  or  above  sixty.  In  this  section  we 
place  the  potatoes  in  the  hot-bed,  from  the  middle  to 
the  end  of  April — the  cooler  the  bed  the  earlier  we  plant. 
Cut  the  roots  lengthwise  and  place  the  cut  side  on  the 
loose  soil  or  sand  in  the  hot-bed,  and  cover  with  sand  or 
mould,  two  inches  thick.  As  the  shoots  grow,  more 
sand  may  be  added,  until  it  reaches  the  height  of  four  or 
five  inches  above  the  potatoes.  The  shoots  or  young 
plants  can  be  removed  and  set  out  in  another  hot-bed,  as 
the  potatoes  will  continue  to  throw  up  new  shoots.  In 
this  way  a  large  number  of  plants  can  be  obtained  from 
each.  Of  course,  it  is  necessary  to  attend  to  ventilating 
and  watering  the  hot-bed.  The  hotter  the  bed,  and  the 
brighter  the  sun,  the  more  water  will  be  needed.  In  no 
case  must  the  bed  be  allowed  to  get  dry.  It  is  also  neces- 
sary to  guard  against  chilling  the  plants  by  saturating  the 
bed  with  cold  water.  Sweet  potato  plants  are  set  out  in 
the  open  ground  from  the  first  of  June  to  the  first  of 
July.  A  warm,  sandy  soil  is  best.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
have  the  land  excessively  rich,  or  the  quality  of  the  po- 


TOMATOES.  117 

tatoes  may  be  injured.  It  is  very  important,  however,  to 
make  the  ground  as  mallow  and  loose  as  possible,  and  to 
keep  the  plants  entirely  free  from  weeds.  Plant  in  rows 
forty-two  inches  apart  and  twenty-four  inches  apart  in 
the  row.  Or  plant  in  hills,  three  feet  apart  each  way. 
A  tablespoonful  of  superphosphate  to  each  hill,  mixed 
with  the  soil  at  the  time  the  potato  plants  are  set  out,  will 
favor  the  ripening  of  the  crop,  and  improve  the  quality, 
The  cultivation  is  similar  to  that  required  for  the  com- 
mon, or  as  the  southerners  call  it,  the  "Irish"  potato. 
In  damp,  growing  weather,  the  vines  lying  on  the  ground 
throw  out  roots,  and  it  is  best  to  check  this  tendency  by 
occasionally  moving  the  vines.  If  you  keep  working 
about  the  vines  as  much  as  is  desirable  with  the  hoe  to 
destroy  weeds,  and  give  the  plants  a  little  fresh  soil, 
nothing  more  will  usually  be  required. 

The  variety  generally  cultivated  at  the  North  is  the 
Nansemond. 


TOMATOES. 

For  home  use  people  generally  depend  on  buying  To- 
mato plants  rather  than  to  be  at  the  trouble  of  raising 
them  themselves.  So  far  as  this  single  crop  is  con- 
cerned, the  plan  is  a  good  one,  but  there  are  plants 
which  are  all  the  better  for  being  started  in  a  hot- 
bed or  in  boxes  in  the  house,  and  the  more  of  these 
things  you  have  to  attend  to,  the  less  likely  will  you  be 
to  neglect  them.  I  would,  therefore,  recommend  all 
young  gardeners  to  raise  their  own  tomato  plants. 
And  all  the  more  so  because,  should  they  fail,  they 
can  readily  buy  plants.  If  they  succeed  in  raising  the 
plants,  all  the  better.  If  they  fail,  none  the  worse. 
You  can  raise  far  better  plants  than  are  generally  to  be 
found  in  the  market. 


118  GARDENING   FOK   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

One  box  such  as  I  have  described,  and  which  will  fit 
into  the  window,  will  start  all  the  tomato  plants  likely  to 
be  wanted  for  home  use.  Here  we  usually  sow  the  seed 
the  last  of  March  or  the  first  of  April.  We  sow  them  in 
rows  about  an  inch  apart,  and  put  three  or  four  seeds  to 
an  inch  of  row,  cover  a  quarter  of  an  inch  deep  with  a 
a  mixture  of  sand  and  sifted  moss,  or  moss  alone.  Keep 
the  soil  moderately  moist,  but  be  careful  not  to  get  it 
too  wet.  If,  at  the  time  of  sowing,  you  saturate  the  soil 
with  warm  water,  as  good  a  rule  as  any  I  can  give  in  re- 
gard to  the  amount  of  water  afterwards  required,  is  never 
to  let  the  surface  soil  get  dry.  If  you  keep  the  surface 
soil  or  moss  on  top  of  the  seed  so  moist  that  it  will  ad- 
here together,  that  will  be  sufficient.  Until  the  plants 
grow,  very  little  water  will  be  required,  but  that  little 
should  be  given  every  day.  It  should  be  milk  warm,  or 
about  as  warm  as  your  hand,  and  be  sprinkled  on  with  a 
fine  rose.  If  any  weeds  appear,  pull  them  out.  And  as 
soon  as  the  plants  begin  to  crowd,  some  of  them  should 
be  removed  into  another  box.  As  soon  as  the  plants 
begin  to  crowd,  transplant  them  again  into  a  spent  hot- 
bed or  cold  frame,  covered  with  glass  or  muslin.  There 
they  can  remain  until  the  soil  and  weather  will  allow 
of  their  being  set  out  in  the  garden. 

If  you  have  pots  it  is  a  great  advantage  to  set  a  to- 
mato plant  in  a  three  or  four-inch  pot  and  plunge  the 
pots  in  the  soil  of  a  moderately  warm  hot-bed.  If  the 
plants  get  too  large  before  the  ground  is  ready  for 
them  in  the  garden,  transfer  them,  soil  and  all,  to  a 
pot  of  larger  size,  and  throw  fresh  soil  into  the  pot  to  fill 
the  space.  Press  the  soil  in  firm,  and  put  in  enough  to 
fill  the  pot,  the  roots  will  soon  fill  it,  and  you  will 
have  strong,  healthy,  stocky  plants,  each  one  of  which  is 
worth  a  dozen  of  the  lank,  crowded  plants  sometimes 
offered  for  sale. 

The  preparation  of  the  soil  in  the  garden  for  tomato 


TOMATOES.  119 

plants  needs  careful  attention.  It  does  not  need  to  be 
specially  rich,  but  it  must  be  made  as  fine  and  mellow  as 
the  most  thorough  working  with  the  plow  or  spade  and 
hoe  and  rake  can  secure.  The  soil  should  never  be 
worked  when  wet.  The  dryer  it  is  the  lighter  you  can 
make  it,  and  the  lighter  it  is  the  warmer  and  better  will 
it  be  for  tomatoes.  In  setting  out  the  tomato  plants  be 
very  careful  to  press  this  dry,  light  soil  firmly  round 
their  roots.  If  the  plants  are  in  pots,  transplanting  is 
a  safe  and  easy  matter,  though  an  important  one.  Be- 
fore transplanting  saturate  the  soil  in  the  pots  with  water, 
nearly  milk  warm.  The  best  way  to  do  this  is  to  place 
the  pots  containing  the  tomatoes  in  a  wash-tub  or  shallow 
box,  containing  water  enough  to  nearly  cover  them.  Let 
them  remain  in  the  water  at  least  four  or  five  minutes, 
then  remove  them  and  let  them  drain  for  an  hour  or  so, 
or  until  you  are  ready  to  set  them  out. 

Plant  in  rows  four  feet  apart,  and  not  less  than  two 
feet  apart  in  the  rows.  Set  a  line  (and  be  sure  you  do 
not  forget  this),  as  crooked  rows  should  never  be  toler- 
ated in  the  garden;  make  holes  with  a  hoe  where  the  plants 
are  to  be  set,  and  if  you  work  into  the  soil  about  a  table- 
spoonful  of  superphosphate  it  will  be  very  beneficial. 
Then,  every  thing  being  ready,  place  your  two  fingers  on 
each  side  of  the  plant,  reverse  the  pot  so  that  the  plant 
will  hang  down  and  strike  the  edge  of  the  pot  on  any 
hard  substance  which  happens  to  be  handy,  say  the  top 
of  a  spade,  or  the  side  of  the  wheelbarrow,  or  the  top  of 
the  wooden  pail  containing  the  superphosphate.  Set  the 
plant,  with  the  ball  of  moist  earth,  undisturbed,  into 
the  hole,  so  deep  that  the  surface  of  the  soil  will  be  fully 
up  to  the  first  leaves  of  the  plant,  pull  the  soil  to,  and 
press  it  firmly  around  the  roots  of  the  plant  with  the 
hands,  and  the  work  is  done.  And  if  well  done,  you 
have  every  reason  to  expect  a  grand  crop  of  tomatoes. 
Do  not  waste  your  time  in  watering  the  plants,  it  is  un- 


120  GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

necessary  and  useless;  the  moist  soil  which  was  around 
the  roots  when  taken  cut  of  the  pot,  will  furnish  all  the 
moisture  needed.  In  setting  out  tomato  plants  from  a 
box  or  hot-bed,  the  soil  should  be  prepared  as  before  di- 
rected. The  plants  in  the  boxes  or  hot-bed  should  have 
the  soil  thoroughly  saturated  with  warm  water.  I  mean 
by  that,  you  should  put  on  as  much  water  as  the  soil  will 
hold.  And  recollect  that  soil  will  hold  a  great  deal  more 
water  than  most  people  would  suppose.  A  good  garden 
soil  will  hold  from  fifty  to  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  its 
weight  of  water.  Such  soil  or  mould  as  we  use  in  the 
hot-bed,  or  for  potting  plants,  will  hold  its  own  weight 
of  water;  in  other  words,  if  you  have  a  pot  containing 
two  pounds  of  saturated  mould,  one  pound  of  it  will  be 
water.  I  mention  this  to  show  that  when  you  undertake 
to  water  a  sash  full  of  tomato  plants  in  the  hot-bed  be- 
fore transplanting  them,  it  will  take  a  good  deal  of  water, 
and  you  will  be  very  apt  to  get  tired  before  you  have  put 
on  all  that  the  soil  will  hold.  There  is  no  danger  of  put- 
ting on  too  much,  for  after  the  earth  is  saturated  it  will 
hold  no  more,  but  the  excess  will  soak  into  the  manure 
below.  The  better  way  is,  to  do  the  work  of  watering 
the  night  before  you  intend  to  set  out  the  plants.  While 
the  plants  are  growing,  water  should  always  be  applied 
through  a  rose,  but  now  that  you  intend  to  remove  them 
from  the  hot-bed,  this  is  not  necessary;  it  will  facilitate 
the  work  if  you  will  take  a  small  garden  fork  and  break 
up  the  soil  between  the  rows  of  plants;  you  can  then  take 
off  the  rose  from  the  watering  pot,  and  pour  on  the  water 
as  fast  as  the  soil  will  absorb  it.  Next  morning  break  up 
the  soil  again  with  the  fork,  and  take  up  each  plant  by 
putting  your  fingers  on  both  sides  of  it  and  squeezing  a 
ball  of  the  loose,  wet  soil,  around  the  roots.  On  no  ac- 
count pull  up  the  plants,  as  this  will  break  off  many  of 
the  fine  roots.  Set  out  the  plants,  with  this  ball  of  moist 
earth  around  the  roots,  down  to  the  first  leaves,  and 


TOMATOES. 


121 


press  the  soil  firmly  around  the  ball  of  moist  earth.  It 
ought  not  to  be  necessary  to  water  the  plants  after  set- 
ting out,  but  if  the  sun  is  very  hot,  a  piece  of  newspaper, 


a  foot  or  eighteen  inches  square,  may  be  placed  over  each 
plant;  this  will  shade  them  and  check  the  evaporation  of 
water  from  the  leaves.     The  plants  will  in  any  case  be 
apt  to  wilt  a  little,  but  this  will  not  hurt  them. 
6 


122  GARDENING   FOE   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

The  after-cultivation  of  tomatoes  is  usually  of  the 
simplest  kind.  I  say  usually,  because  sometimes,  in  the 
garden,  tomatoes  are  trained  to  a  trellis  two  and  one- 
half  or  three  feet  high.  By  a  little  judicious  training 
and  pruning,  they  are  quite  ornamental,  and  produce 
very  fine  fruit.  But  in  our  dry  climate,  tomatoes  are 
seldom  injured  by  allowing  the  vines  to  trail  on  the 
ground;  and  after  setting  out  the  plants,  all  that  the 
tomato-grower  need  do  is  to  keep  the  ground  well  stir- 
red up  and  clean,  by  the  frequent  use  of  the  cultivator 
and  hoe. 

Tomatoes  are  now  largely  grown  for  the  canning  estab- 
lishments. The  profit  of  the  crop,  however,  depends 
on  our  ability  to  get  early  fruit  and  market  it  for  con- 
sumption, while  it  brings  the  highest  price.  Early  in 
the  season  you  can  generally  get  a  dollar  a  basket  for 
the  first  tomatoes,  while,  as  the  season  advances  and  the 
crop  becomes  more  abundant,  the  price  falls  to  sixty,  fifty, 
or  forty  cents  per  bushel,  and  sometimes  in  September, 
they  are  sold  for  ten  cents  per  basket.  A  basket  of  to- 
matoes weighs  about  thirty  pounds,  or  sixty-six  baskets  to 
the  ton.  The  canning  establishments  pay  from  eight  to 
fifteen  dollars  per  ton,  or  at  the  rate  of  from  twelve  and 
one-half  to  twenty-three  cents  per  basket.  If  the  whole 
crop  was  sold  to  the  canning  establishments,  the  profit 
would  be  very  moderate;  but  taken  in  connection  with  the 
high  price  obtained  for  the  early  fruit,  twenty  cents  per 
basket  does  very  well,  and  is  more  profitable  than  ordi- 
nary farm  crops.  But  in  this,  as  in  all  other  crops,  a 
great  deal  depends  on  securing  a  large  yield  per  acre. 
This  depends  on  the  length  of  the  season  and  the  power 
of  the  sun  to  ripen  the  fruit.  If  the  land  is  rich  and 
is  kept  well  cultivated,  and  entirely  free  from  weeds,  a 
hot,  dry  season  is  favorable.  .Sixteen  tons  per  acre,  or 
one  thousand  baskets  may  be  considered  a  maximum  crop. 

The  best  varieties  for  the  general  crop,  are  Hathaway's 


TOMATOES.  123 

Excelsior,  Acme,  Trophy,  and  General  Grant.  The 
earliest  variety  is  the  Hubbard  Curled  Leaf,  but  it  should 
be  planted  only  to  a  limited  extent,  as  it  is  small  and  not 
of  the  best  quality.  It  is  only  good  until  we  can  get 
something  better.  In  the  cool  summer  of  1882,  when 
many  of  the  later  varieties  failed  to  ^ipen,  we  had  an 
excellent  crop  from  Hubbard  Curled  Leaf.  I  never 
knew  it  do  so  well  or  produce  such  an  abundant  crop  of 
fine  fruit  before.  The  Early  Smooth  Red  is  still  a  favor- 
ite in  many  sections.  Persian  Yellow  is  a  large  tomato 
of  a  creamy  yellow  color.  The  Red  Cherry  is  a  small 
variety  grown  for  pickling  and  preserving. 

TOMATOES  FOR   SEED. 

It  is  not  an  easy  matter  to  get  really  good,  well-bred 
tomato  seed,  and  I  would  advise  some  of  my  young  friends 
to  make  a  speciality  of  growing  it.  The  entire  crop 
should  be  devoted  to  the  one  object  of  growing  the 
choicest  and  best  seed,  and  that  only.  It  will  not  do  to 
market  or  eat  the  earliest  and  best  fruit,  and  then  save 
the  seed  from  what  is  left.  Every  plant  that  does  not 
prove  true  to  kind,  should  be  remorselessly  and  promptly 
pulled  up  and  thrown  away;  by  continuing  this  careful 
selection  for  a  few  years,  such  a  tomato-grower  would 
find  a  good  demand  for  all  the  seed  he  could  produce 
at  remunerative  prices.  At  first  it  might  not  pay  him, 
as  he  might  have  to  sell  the  seed  for  the  same  price  as 
common  seed.  Tomato  seed  retains  its  vitality  six  or 
seven  years,  and  it  would  be  well  for  the  seed-grower  to 
save  the  seed  of  only  one  variety  each  year. 

To  extract  the  seed,  mash  the  tomatoes,  throw  them 
into  a  barrel  with  water,  and  allow  them  to  ferment;  the 
seed  will  fall  to  the  bottom,  and  the  scum  rise  to  the  top, 
when  it  can  be  skimmed  off.  I  generally  throw  the  skim- 
mings into  another  barrel  and  allow  them  to  ferment 


124  GARDEKIKG   FOE   YOUKG   AND   OLD. 

twenty-four  or  forty-eight  hours  longer;  the  seed  can  be 
allowed  to  remain  in  the  fermenting  barrel  for  several  days 
without  injury  to  its  germinating  powers,  but  it  does  not 
look  quite  so*  bright  as  that  first  taken  from  the  barrel 
after  it  has  been  allowed  to  ferment  thirty-six  or  forty- 
eight  hours.  It  is  convenient  to  have  plenty  of  barrels 
and  an  abundance  of  water.  A  little  knowledge  of  chem- 
istry, with  «ome  experience,  will  greatly  facilitate  the 
labor  of  washing  out  and  drying  the  seed.  It  will  fa- 
cilitate the  drying  process  if  you  press  out  as  much 
water  as  possible,  either  by  squeezing  the  seeds  be- 
tween the  hands  pr  putting  them  in  a  bag  under  a  cheese 
press,  before  putting  them  on  the  stretchers  to  dry.  The 
seed  must  be  thoroughly  dried  before  being  bagged  and 
stowed  away. 

TURNJPS. 

The  cultivation  of  Turnips  merely  for  home  use,  as  a 
table  vegetable,  will  not  require  much  thought  or  labor. 
But  when  grown  extensively  either  as  a  farm  crop  for 
stock,  or  as  a  farm-garden  crop  for  market,  it  will  be 
necessary  to  bestow  considerable  attention  upon  them.  It 
is  often  thought  that  our  climate  is  not  well  adapted  to 
the  growth  of  turnips.  I  am  satisfied  that  this  is  a  mis- 
take. We  can  grow  just  as  good  turnips  here,  and  as 
large  a  crop  per  acre,  as  in  any  other  country.  The  rea- 
son probably  why  the  English  and  Scotch  farmers  raise 
turnips  so  extensively,  is  not  that  they  can  grow  them  so 
much  better  or  more  easily  than  we  can,  but  because 
their  winters  are  so  much  milder,  that  the  roots  can  be 
largely  eaten  off  by  sheep  during  the  autumn,  winter 
and  spring  months  on  the  land  where  they  grow.  If  an 
English  farmer  could  sell  his  turnips  at  any  thing  like 
the  price  the  crop  will  bring  in  this  country,  no  other 
farm  crop  would  be  half  so  profitable.  But,  as  I  said  be- 


TURNIPS.  125 

fore,  this  is  not  because  the  climate  is  any  better  than 
our  own  for  the  production  of  the  crop,  but  because  long 
experience  has  enabled  British  farmers  to  use  the  very 
best  methods  in  its  cultivation.  I  have  known  an  Eng- 
lish farmer  to  spend  fifty  dollars  an  acre  in  preparing 
his  land  for  turnips.  It  should  be  understood  that  tur- 
nips can  not  be  grown  with  the  preparation  of  the  land 
necessary  for  corn  and  potatoes. 

Turnip  seed  is  small,  and  it  is  useless  to  sow  it  among 
clods  and  expect  it  to  germinate.  The  land  for  turnips 
must  be  in  the  very  best  possible  condition.  If  it  is  neces- 
sary to  plow  it  twice,  plow  it  twice;  if  three  times  are  neces- 
sary, then  plow  it  three  times.  Either  abandon  the  idea 
of  raising  the  crop,  or  work  the  land  and  keep  working 
it,  until  not  a  clod  or  hard  spot  remains.  Superphosphate 
of  lime  is  confessedly  the  best  of  all  artificial  fertilizers 
for  turnips;  and  now  that  it  is  so  easily  obtained,  and  at 
such  a  reasonable  price,  there  is  no  reason  why  turnips 
should  not  be  more  extensively  grown.  In  the  market 
turnips  usually  bring  very  liberal  prices,  and  the  crop  has 
this  advantage,  if  it  can  not  be  sold  in  market,  it  can  be 
fed  out  on  the  farm.  Horses  are  very  fond  of  ruta-ba- 
gas,  or  sweet  turnips.  I  do  not  say  that  they  are  a  bet- 
ter or  cheaper  food  for  them  in  this  country  than  corn  or 
oats,  but  after  your  horse  has  had  the  usual  allowance  of 
oats  or  corn,  he  will  not  be  sorry  when  the  price  of  ruta- 
bagas falls  so  low  in  market  that  you  will  not  begrudge 
him  three  or  four  good-sized  roots  every  day. 

Euta-bagas  or  Swedes  usually  pay  better  than  the  early 
white-fleshed  varieties.  But  I  should  perhaps  here  say 
that  turnips  may  be  divided  into  three  classes.  One  class 
is  well  represented  by  the  common  Strap-leaf  variety;  it  is 
sown  late  in  the  summer,  and  grows  with  the  greatest 
rapidity;  but  it  is  not  a  good  keeper,  which  is  true 
of  all  of  this  class.  These  are  grown  very  extensively 
in  England  to  be  eaten  on  the  land  by  sheep  in  October 


126  GARDENING   FOB   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

and  November;  they  grow  quickly,  but  contain  compara- 
tively little  nutriment.  I  have  known  a  large  crop  that 
grew  very  rapidly  to  contain  ninety-five  per  cent,  of 
water;  in  other  words,  one  ton  of  the  turnips  contained 
only  one  hundred  pounds  of  real  food.  An  animal  eat- 
ing such  turnips,  has  therefore  to  take  in  nineteen 
pounds  of  water  to  get  one  pound  of  real  food;  no  wonder 
such  turnips  can  grow  rapidly,  and  no  wonder  they  will 
not  keep  long. 

The  second  class,  of  which  the  Yellow  Aberdeen  and 
Yellowstone  are  good  examples,  requires  to  be  sown 
earlier.  They  will  grow  larger  and  keep  later  than  those 
of  the  first  class. 

Class  third  includes  all  the  varieties  known  as  Swede 
turnips,  or  Ruta-bagas,  they  are  essentially  winter  varie- 
ties. They  must  be  sown  earli- 
er than  the  other  classes,  and 
require  richer  land;  they  are 
far  more  nutritious  than  the 
others,  and  will  keep  late  into 
the  following  spring.  I  wish 
this  matter  to  be  understood. 
People  often  ask  for  the  best 
variety  of  turnips;  they  might 
just  as  well  ask  for  the  best 
variety  of  apples.  If  you  ask 
which  is  the  best  summer  ap- 
Fig.  36.  pie,  the  best  early  or  late  au- 

IMPEBIAL  PURPLE  TOP  SWEDE,  tumn  apple,  or  which  is  the 
best  wirtter  apple,  an  experienced  fruit-grower  might  be 
able  to  answer  the  question.  And  so  it  is  with  turnips, 
we  have  early  and  late  autumn  kinds,  and  winter  or 
early  spring  kinds;  the  latter  class  being  Euta-bagas  or 
Swede  turnips. 

The  cultivation  of  such  varieties  as  the  Strap-leaf  is 
often  no  cultivation  at  all.  The  seed  is  scattered  on  any 


TURNIPS.  127 

vacant  spot,  from  the  middle  of  July  to  the  first  of  Sep- 
tember, and  we  trust  to  chance  for  a  crop.  One  year  in  five 
we  get  a  good  crop;  one  year  in  three  we  get  a  fair  crop, 
on  perhaps  one-fourth  of  the  land,  while  on  three-fourths 
of  the  field  the  turnips  are  not  worth  gathering.  I  do 
not  say  that  ifc  does  not  pay  to  sow  turnips  in  this  way; 
very  little  labor  is  required,  the  land  would  otherwise  lie 
idle,  and  one  pound  of  seed  is  amply  sufficient  to  sow  an 
acre;  in  fact,  if  you  can  distribute  it  evenly,  half  a  pound 
is  enough.  It  is  quite  a  knack  to  sow  turnip  seed  broad- 
cast; all  the  seed  required  is  what  you  can  hold  between 
your  thumb  and  the  first  two  fingers;  scatter  the  seed 
over  a  width  of  about  ten  feet,  then  take  two  steps  for- 
ward and  throw  another  similar  pinch;  throw  it  boldly, 
and  keep  your  hand  all  the  time  on  a  level  with  your 
shoulder;  most  people  let  their  hand  fall  as  low  as  the 
hip,  but  the  other  is  far  the  better  way;  it  insures  a 
much  more  even  distribution  of  the  seed.  But  I  do  not 
want  my  young  friends  to  be  sowing  turnips  broadcast. 
As  a  rule,  what  is  worth  doing  at  all  is  worth  doing  well. 
And  now  that  we  have  the  best  of  implements  to  prepare 
the  land,  good  drills  to  sow  the  seed,  and  good  hoes 
to  thin  out  the  plants,  I  am  very  confident  that,  taking 
one  year  with  another,  it  is  far  more  profitable  to  drill  in 
turnip  seed,  and  cultivate  between  the  rows  with  a  horse- 
hoe  than  it  is  to  sow  broadcast.  It  is  not  merely  that 
you  get  two  or  three,  or  four  times  as  many  bushels  of 
turnips  per  acre,  but  you  are  almost  certain  of  a  crop, 
even  in  the  most  unfavorable  season.  When  a  good  crop 
is  obtained  from  sowing  broadcast,  and  leaving  the  plants 
to  take  care  of  themselves,  the  market  will  be  glutted 
with  turnips,  and  the  price  will  be  low;  but  in  an  ordi- 
nary season,  when  you  will  not  get  more  than  half  a  crop 
from  the  broadcast  sowing,  on  half  the  land,  turnips 
will  command  a  good  price,  and  the  farmer  or  gardener 
who  has  a  good  crop,  gets  ample  compensation  for  his 


128  GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

enterprise  and  labor;  while  the  very  next  year,  the  sea- 
son may  be  so  unfavorable  that  the  broadcast  turnips  are 
almost  a  universal  failure,  and  the  good  cultivator  who 
has  a  good  crop,  can  sell  turnips  enough  from  an  acre  of 
land  to  buy  him  a  horse  and  buggy.  Let  us  then  aban- 
don the  idea  of  sowing  turnips  broadcast,  except  in  rare 
cases. 

CULTIVATION  OF  KUTA-BAGAS. 

Kuta-bagas,  or  Swede  Turnips — or  as  it  would  be  better 
to  call  them,  Winter  Turnips,  should  be  sown  about  corn- 
planting  time,  or  from  that  until  about  the  time  we  usu- 
ally plant  beans.  I  have  myself  had  a  good  crop  sown  as 
late  as  July  4th,  but  from  the  last  of  May  to  the  middle 
of  June  is  the  better  time  in  this  section. 

Jjand  that  will  raise  good  corn  will  produce  good  tur- 
nips, but  ruta-bagas  do  better  on  a  somewhat  stiff  loam 
than  on  a  light  sandy  one;  they  will  do  very  well  on 
sandy  soil  provided  you  make  it  rich  enough.  On  the 
stiff  soils,  it  is  better  to  prepare  the  land  the  autumn  pre- 
vious. If  the  land  has  been  in  corn  or  potatoes,  plow 
it  as  soon  as  the  crop  is  removed;  the  earlier  the  better; 
harrow,  roll,  and  pick  up  and  draw  off  all  stones  large 
enough  to  interfere  with  a  cultivator.  If  the  land  is  at 
all  weedy,  plow  or  cultivate,  and  harrow  and  roll  during 
dry  weather  in  autumn,  until  all  the  weeds  are  killed. 
If  the  work  has  been  well  done,  this  thorough  cultiva- 
tion will  start  into  growth  millions  of  weed  seeds.  Be- 
fore cold  weather  sets  in,  plow  the  land  again,  and  leave 
it  rough  for  the  winter.  The  frost  will  break  up  the 
stiff  lumps  of  clay,  and  the  next  spring  they  will  readily 
crumble  to  pieces,  and  produce  the  very  best  soil  for  ru- 
ta-bagas. Do  not  plow  the  land  in  the  spring  until  it 
is  quite  dry;  the  surface  may  bake,  but  when  you  come 
to  plow  it,  you  will  find  that  the  soil  underneath  will  turn 
up  fine,  mellow,  and  moist. 


TURNIPS.  129 

If  barn-yard  manure  is  to  be  used,  there  are  two 
methods  of  applying  it ;  one  plan  is  to  spread  it  broad- 
cast all  o^er  the  land,  and  another,  to  make  ridges  or 
furrows,  thirty  inches  apart  and  put  the  manure  in 
these  furrows,  carefully  knocking  it  to  pieces  with  the 
fork  or  hoe.  Cover  up  the  manure  by  splitting  the  ridges 
with  the  plow.  A  double  mould-board  plow  does  the  work 
twice  as  fast  as  a  common  plow,  and  in  skillful  hands 
does  it  far  better.  The  turnip  seed  is  then  drilled  in  on 
these  ridges,  immediately  above  the  manure.  To  do  the 
work  expeditiously  and  well,  not  only  a  good  double  mould- 
board  plow  is  required,  but  a  turnip  drill  with  a  roller 
before  and  behind  the  coulter  which  deposits  the  seed. 

Without  these  implements  and  more  or  less  skill  in 
their  use,  a  young  turnip-grower  had  better  apply  his 
manure  broadcast,  and  after  the  land  is  thoroughly  pre- 
pared, drill  in  the  seed  on  the  flat  surface.  He  need 
not  regret  the  necessity  for  adopting  this  method,  for  it 
is  not  without  some  advantages  over  the  other.  In  ridging 
and  applying  the  manure  between  the  ridges,  you  must 
make  the  furrows  wide  enough  apart  to  allow  the  wheels 
of  the  wagon  or  cart  to  go  in  them. 

In  other  words  you  will  have  to  make  the  ridges  about 
thirty  inches  apart,  which  is  wider  than  it  is  necessary 
to  drill  in  the  turnips.  I  find  no  difficulty,  with  a  steady 
horse,  of  running  a  cultivator  between  rows  of  turnips 
or  beets  twenty-one  inches  apart,  and  if  your  land  is  rich 
enough,  you  can  grow  a  far  larger  crop  in  these  close 
rows  than  you  can  in  wide  ones.  I  think,  however,  it 
will  usually  be  better  to  have  the  rows  two  feet  apart,  and 
to  thin  the  turnips  to  ten  or  twelve  inches  in  the  rows. 

If  the  rows  are  two  feet  apart,  and  the  plants  one 
foot  in  the  row,  we  have  twenty-one  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  eighty  plants  on  an  acre.  If  the  rows  are 
thirty  inches  apart,  and  the  plants  a  foot  apart  in  the 
rows,  we  have  seventeen  thousand  four  hundred  and 


130  GARDENING   FOE  YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

twenty-four  plants  on  an  acre.  If  the  turnips  average 
four  pounds  each,  the  one  crop  on  the  ridges  would  give 
us  less  than  thirty-five  tons  per  acre,  while  the  crop  on 
the  flat,  in  the  narrow  rows,  would  give  us  over  forty- 
three  tons  per  acre,  or  reckoning  the  turnips  at  sixty 
pounds  per  bushel,  the  crop  on  the  narrow  rows  would 
give  us  one  thousand  four  hundred  and  fifty-two  bushels 
to  the  acre,  while  in  the  wider  rows  the  crop  would  be 
less  than  one  thousand  one  hundred  and  ninety-two 
bushels  to  the  acre. 

I  am  free  to  admit,  that  either  crop  would  be  a  remark- 
ably good  one,  but  I  am  advocating  good  cultivation  and 
the  liberal  use  of  fertilizers.  During  the  winter  of  1881 
— '82,  it  would  have  been  a  very  easy  matter  to  have  dis- 
posed of  thousands  of  bushels  of  ruta-bagas  at  fifty  cents 
a  bushel,  and  even  one  thousand  bushels  per  acre  would 
have  afforded  a  magnificent  profit. 

But  before  you  can  make  a  profit  of  five  hundred  dol- 
lars an  acre  from  a  crop  of  turnips,  you  have  something 
to  do.  I  speak  of  these  prospective  and  possible  profits 
as  an  incentive  to  faith,  hope,  and  labor.  I  want  you  to 
have  faith  in  good  farming,  and  not  be  afraid  to  put 
work  and  manure  into  the  land.  There  are  some  draw- 
backs and  difficulties  and  many  seeming  discouragements; 
there  are  drouths,  Black-beetles,  Turnip-lice  and  mildew, 
but  if  there  were  none  of  these,  turnips^  would  never 
bring  fifty  cents  a  bushel.  The  best  remedies  for  all  of 
these  is,  the  thorough  preparation  of  the  land,  liberal 
manuring  and  frequent  cultivation  between  the  rows 
of  plants,  and  careful  thinning  out  and  hoeing  in  the 
rows. 

If  flat  cultivation  is  adopted  and  the  land  is  prepared 
in  the  autumn,  as  previously  recommended,  the  manure 
may  be  spread  on  the  land  in  the  spring  before  plowing  ; 
though  I  think  it  is  better  to  plow  the  land  first.  My 
own  plan  is,  to  draw  the  manure  to  the  field  during  the 


TUENIPS.  131 

winter  and  put  it  in  large  square  heaps,  about  five  feet 
high  ;  in  the  spring,  if  necessary,  turn  over  the  heaps  to 
facilitate  decomposition. 

When  the  manure  is  in  heaps  in  the  field,  it  is  an  easy 
matter  to  draw  it  about  the  lot,  even  if  the  land  has  been 
plowed  ;  put  it  in  rows  about  five  yards  apart,  and  make 
the  heaps  at  about  the  same  distance  in  rows.  This  would 
give  one  hundred  and  ninety-three  heaps  on  an  acre,  and 
if  you  put  three  bushels  of  manure  in  each  heap,  and  each 
bushel  weighs  seventy-five  pounds,  you  would  put  on  a  little 
over  twenty  tons  to  the  acre.  If  the  manure  is  good,  and 
you  apply  three  or  four  hundred  pounds  of  superphos- 
phate per  acre  in  addition,  this  amount  will  be  amply 
sufficient  to  produce  a  grand  crop  of  turnips. 

Spread  the  manure  evenly  on  the  land,  and  then  go 
over  it  with  a  smoothing  harrow  lengthwise,  and  cross- 
wise of  the  furrows  two  or  three  times,  until  the  manure 
is  thoroughly  broken  up  and  mixed  with  the  soil.  Not 
a  single  lump  should  remain  visible.  This  is  an  impor- 
tant matter,  and  you  should  do  the  work  very  thoroughly. 
If  you  are  inclined  to  shrink  from  the  labor  and  expense, 
think  of  a  thousand  bushels  of  turnips  to  the  acre,  and 
what  they  are  likely  to  be  worth  in  market,  and  go  over 
the  land  once  more  with  a  harrow. 

The  next  step  depends  on  the  nature  of  the  soil.  My 
own  soil  varies  greatly.  I  have  in  the  same  field  a  black 
sand,  with  more  or  less  muck  in  it,  and  a  sandy  knoll 
with  a  stiff,  tenacious  loam  between.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  plow  the  muck  or  the  dry  sand  as  much  as  the  heavier 
soil.  And  yet,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  light  soil  is  always 
better  plowed  than  the  other,  as  the  plow  goes  in  deeper 
than  it  does  on  the  clay.  I  find  it  better  to  plow 
the  heavier  soil  by  itself,  even  if  it  is  necessary  to  turn 
round  every  few  rods.  When  thoroughly  reduced  by  good 
and  repeated  plowing,  the  heavier  soil  gives  the  best  crops, 
but  if  carelessly  plowed,  with  a  point  good  enough  to  go 


132  GAEDENING  FOE  YOUNG  AND   OLD. 

in  on  the  sand,  but  which  skims  over  the  dry,  hard  clayey 
spots,  we  should  be  pretty  certain  to  get  no  crop  worth 
harvesting.  As  I  cannot  tell  the  kind  of  land  on  which 
you  are  going  to  sow  the  turnips,  I  cannot  tell  you  just 
how  to  work  it ;  it  is  one  of  the  advantages  of  agriculture 
and  horticulture,  that  each  man  must  do  his  own  think- 
ing. All  I  can  say  is  this  :  for  turnips,  the  land  must  be 
worked  with  a  plow,  the  gang-plow,  the  cultivator,  the 
harrow  and  the  roller,  until  not  a  lump  remains  on  the 
surface  or  within  reach  of  the  drill. 

Before  the  last  harrowing  and  rolling,  or  earlier,  sow 
on  the  superphosphate  at  the  rate  of  three  hundred  pounds 
per  acre;  be  careful  to  distribute  it  evenly,  and  if  the  su- 
perphosphate is  not  entirely  free  from  lumps,  run  it 
through  a  sieve  and  break  them  up  fine;  go  over  the 
land  once  more  with  the  smoothing  harrow  or  roller;  set 
a  line — do  not  forget  this — and  drill  in  the  seed,  in 
rows  two  feet  apart.  The  drill  makes  its  own  mark,  but 
if  you  find  the  rows  are  getting  crooked,  set  the  line 
again,  and  in  such  a  way  that  in  no  point  it  shall  be  less 
than  two  feet  from  the  last  drill  mark.  If  the  soil  is 
moist,  the  shallower  you  can  sow  the  seed  the  better,  pro- 
vided it  is  covered  at  all;  but  if  the  surface-soil  is  dry, 
you  may  set  the  drill  to  deposit  the  seed  half  an  inch 
deep,  or  until  it  will  reach  the  moist  soil  below.  I  would 
sow  at  least  two  seeds  to  each  inch  of  row,  and  if  the  soil 
is  dry,  with  little  prospect  of  rain,  I  would  sow  three  or 
four  seeds  to  each  inch  of  row,  or  two  pounds  to  the  acre. 
If  the  soil  and  weather  are  moist/  and  every  thing  is  fa- 
vorable, one  pound  is  sufficient;  but  in  average  condi- 
tions two  pounds  per  acre  is  the  rule.  It  is  better  to  sow 
three,  four,  or  even  five  pounds  per  acre,  than  to  run 
any  risk  of  losing  your  crop  by  the  swarms  of  black  bee- 
tles which  frequently  attack  the  young  plants.  After 
the  turnip  plants  get  into  the  rough  leaf,  the  beetles  do 
them  comparatively  little  harm.  As  soon,  therefore,  as  the 


TURNIPS.  133 

plants  get  into  the  rough  leaf,  commence  to  hoe  and  thin 
them  out.  Hoeing  turnips  and  thinning  them  out,  are 
both  done  at  the  same  time.  You  may  think  the  remark 
unnecessary,  but  I  have  known  people  to  hoe  on  each 
side  of  the  row  of  turnips  and  afterwards  go  over  the 
piece  and  thin  them  out.  The  true  plan  is,  to  cultivate 
the  turnips  between  the  rows  with  a  horse-hoe,  that  will 
pull  a  little  soil  away  from  the  row.  If  the  rows  are 
straight,  a  skillful  boy  will  run  his  cultivator  within  an 
inch  of  the  plants;  when  through  cultivating,  the  young 
turnip  plants  will  stand  in  straight  rows  two  inches  in 
width,  invitingly  ready  for  the  hoe. 

Have  the  hoe  ground  sharp  and  bright,  square  at  the 
corners,  with  the  shank  bent  at  nearly  right  angles  with 
the  handle;  then  dash  your  hoe  boldly  across  the  row  of 
turnips,  pulling  it  towards  you;  then  push  it  back  slowly 
in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  only  one  plant  in  a  place.  The 
work  can  nearly  all  be  done  with  a  hoe,  but  occasionally, 
when  the  plants  interlock,  it  will  be  necessary  to  stoop  down 
and  remove  all  but  one  with  the  thumb  and  finger.  For 
this  reason,  if  the  plants  are  very  thick  in  the  row,  you 
must  commence  to  single  out  as  early  as  possible,  and  push 
forward  the  work  with  energy.  It  will  not  do  to  loiter 
or  tell  stories.  If  you  do,  the  plants  will  assuredly  get 
the  start  of  you,  and  then  you  have  a  tough  job  on  hand. 
If,  in  spite  of  all  you  can  do,  you  find  you  can  not  get 
through  the  whole  piece  before  the  plants  are  likely  to  be 
injured  by  over  crowding,  the  better  way  is,  to  go  through 
the  whole  piece  and  bunch  out  the  plants.  By  this  I 
mean  strike  the  hoe  across  the  row,  leaving  bunches  of 
plants  ten  or  twelve  inches  apart,  and  afterwards  go 
over  them  again  and  single  them  out. 

Turnips  will  stand  rougher  treatment  than  beets  or 
mangels.  If  you  cut  too  close  to  a  beet  plant,  our  hot 
sun  will  kill  it;  while  a  turnip  in  the  same  circumstances 
would  revive  during  the  next  night.  After  the  plants 


134  GARDENING   FOR  YOUNG  AND   OLD. 

are  singled  our  for  the  first  time,  all  that  you  have  to  do 
is,  to  keep  the  cultivator  frequently  running  between  the 
rows.  As  soon  as  any  weeds  appear  among  the  turnips, 
that  can  not  be  reached  by  the  cultivator,  go  over  the 
piece  again  with  the  hoe,  and  cut  out  all  the  weeds,  and 
at  the  same  time  single  out  any  plants  that  may  have 
been  left  double,  and  this  is  all  that  will  be  necessary  un- 
til the  crop  is  ready  to  harvest. 


GATHERING   THE   CHOP. 

Euta-bagas,  or  Winter  Turnips,  will  stand  quite  a 
sharp  frost  without  injury,  especially  if  at  the  time  the 
frost  occurs,  the  roots  are  surmounted  by  an  abundance 
of  green  vigorous  leaves.  As  long,  therefore,  as  the 
leaves  of  the  turnips  keep  green,  there  is  no  particular 
necessity  for  pulling  up  the  crop;  as  the  great  difficulty 
in  keeping  turnips  in  large  piles  or  pits,  during  the  win- 
ter, is  their  tendency  to  heat — the  colder  the  weather, 
provided  the  roots  are  not  actually  frozen  when  the  crop 
is  gathered,  the  better  will  the  roots  keep.  If  the  crop 
is  in  by  Thanksgiving  Day,  it  will  be  early  enough  three 
seasons  out  of  four.  My  own  plan  is,  to  pit  the  roots  in 
the  field  as  we  do  potatoes  and  mangels.  We  plow  out  a 
wide,  deep,  dead-furrow.  We  mark  out  the  spot  where 
the  pit  is  to  be,  of  any  desired  length,  and  then  measure 
off  six  or  eight  feet  on  each  side,  and  start  the  plow, 
plowing  up  and  down  on  both  sides,  until  the  center,  or 
dead-furrow  is  reached;  then  commence  on  the  outside 
again,  and  plow  up  and  down  as  before.  This  will  make 
a  still  deeper  and  wider  dead-furrow;  then  commence  on 
the  outside  again,  and  plow  up  and  down  again  as  before, 
plowing  deeper  as  you  approach  the  center.  These  three 
plowings  will  give  a  mass  of  deep,  mellow  earth,  which 
will  afterwards  be  very  convenient  for  covering  the  pit. 


TUEKIPS.  135 

It  will  also  bid  defiance  to  the  severest  frost.  If  neces- 
sary, the  bottom  of  this  wide,  deep,  dead-furrow,  may  be 
cleaned  out  and  made  flat,  level,  and  square  with  the 
spade  or  shovel;  the  pit  is  then  ready  for  the  roots.  No 
straw  is  needed  at  the  bottom  or  sides.  The  days  are 
short,  winter  is  approaching,  and  you  must  work  lively 
and  make  a  short  job  of  it. 

My  plan  is,  to  set  three  teams  with  stone-boats  to  draw- 
ing the  untopped  turnips  to  the  pit;  one  man,  with  the 
team  and  stone-boat,  takes  two  rows  at  a  time,  and  as 
soon  as  he  has  put  on  all  he  can  carry,  he  drives  to  the 
pit,  where  a  couple  of  men  help  him  to  top  the  turnips 
and  throw  them  into  the  pit.  By  the  time  this  is  done, 
another  load  is  at  the  pit,  and  the  empty  stone-boat  goes 
for  another  load,  and  by  the  time  the  second  load  is 
topped,  the  third  team  is  at  the  pit  with  a  load  waiting 
to  be  topped.  If  all  hands  work  sharp,  a  great  lot  of 
turnips  can  be  gathered,  topped,  and  pitted  in  a  day.  On 
my  own  farm,  I  generally  find  it  best  to  have  an  extra 
man  to  help  the  drivers  to  pull  and  load  the  turnips;  if 
both  work  well,  this  doubles  the  speed  of  the  whole  oper- 
ation. In  other  words,  we  have  two  men  pulling  turnips 
all  the  time,  and  two  men  ought  to  pull  twice  as  many 
as  one  man.  In  fact,  I  have  sometimes  thought  that  two 
good  sharp  boys  would  pull  more  than  twice  as  many 
turnips  as  one  man  who  spends  one-third  of  his  time  in 
stopping  and  starting  the  team.  Two  active  boys,  who 
work  during  these  short  days  with  a  will,  can  pull  up  two 
rows  of  turnips  and  put  them  on  the  stone-boat  almost  as 
fast  as  a  slow  team  will  walk.  If  they  cannot  top  the 
turnips  fast  enough  at  the  pit,  put  on  another  man,  or 
what  is  better  still,  take  hold  and  help  yourself.  As  a 
rule,  however,  the  man  or  boy  who  has  charge  of  the  job, 
should  not  undertake  any  part  of  the  work  that  will  oc- 
cupy all  his  time;  he  had  better  undertake  the  general 
supervision,  and  be  ready  to  lend  a  helping  hand  where 


136  GAKDENItfG   FOE  YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

most  needed.  There  is  always  plenty  of  work  to  be  done 
at  the  pit. 

When  the  roots  in  the  pit  reach  the  level  of  the  ground, 
it  will  be  necessary  to  take  a  little  more  pains  in  placing 
them  in  it.  And  I  would  especially  recommend  you, 
if  possible,  to  throw  a  quantity  of  dry  sand  or  earth  on 
the  turnips  in  the  pit.  Those  below  the  surface  of  the 
ground  do  not  need  it  so  much,  but  the  turnips  in  the 
pit  above  the  surface,  and  especially  as  they  approach  the 
top,  will  keep  far  better  and  fresher,  if  dry  earth  or  sand 
is  freely  scattered  among  them.  A  bushel  of  sand  to 
each  three  or  four  bushels  of  turnips  will  be  exceedingly 
beneficial.  I  do  not  mean  that  you  should  draw  sand 
from  a  distance,  but  take  that  which  has  been  plowed 
out  of  the  pit,  giving  preference  to  that  which  is  driest. 
Do  not  be  afraid  of  using  too  much.  The  sand  will  not 
only  keep  the  turnips  fresher,  but  it  is  quite  a  conven- 
ience in  enabling  you  to  build  up  the  sides  of  the  pit 
straighter  and  narrower.  A  wide  pit  is  objectionable; 
four  feet  wide  at  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and  gradually 
tapering  up  to  the  top,  to  the  height  of  three  and  a  half 
to  four  feet,  is  quite  large  enough.  It  is  generally  rec- 
ommended to  place  chimneys  every  four  or  five  feet  in 
the  pit,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  off  the  heat  or  steam. 
These  chimneys  can  be  made  by  placing  a  bunch  of  straw 
a  foot  deep  among  the  turnips,  and  letting  it  project 
through  the  covering  of  earth  on  top.  Drain  tiles  two 
or  three  inches  in  diameter  are  equally  effective. 

If  the  work  is  delayed  until  just  before  winter  sets  in, 
and  the  turnips  are  very  cold  when  put  in  the  pit,  and 
above  all,  if  plenty  of  dry  sand  has  been  mixed  with  the 
roots,  and  a  liberal  coat  of  straw,  say  six  or  eight  inches 
thick,  is  placed  on  top  of  the  roots  from  the  surface  to 
the  apex,  there  is  very  little  danger  that  the  turnips  will 
get  too  hot  in  the  pit.  As  I  have  said  before,  this  is  the 
real  difficulty  in  keeping  turnips.  It  is  a  very  easy  mat- 


TURNIPS.  137 

ter  to  keep  out  the  frost.  When  the  pit  is  finished,  get 
a  load  of  dry  straw  and  cover  the  pit  evenly  all  over,  sii 
or  eight  inches  thick,  and  at  the  same  time  commence  to 
cover  it  with  earth,  working  from  the  surface  of  the  land 
upwards.  If,  in  doing  this,  you  find  any  part  where  the 
straw  is  too  thin,  add  more  straw.  Just  earth  enough  to 
hide  the  straw  should  be  put  on.  Make  the  surface  of 
the  soil  smooth,  so  that  it  will  readily  shed  rain,  and  the 
work  is  done  for  the  present. 

Later,  however,  it  may  be  necessary  to  give  the  pit  an- 
other covering  of  straw  and  earth,  and  before  it  is  left, 
plow  around  it  half  a  dozen  times,  to  the  width  of  five  or 
six  feet  on  both  sides  of  the  pit,  turning  the  furrows  to- 
wards the  pit.  This  is  very  important.  You  cannot  plow 
too  much  or  too  deeply,  as  loose  earth  is  an  excellent  non- 
conductor of  heat,  and  the  severest  frost  will  do  little 
more  in  any  single  night  than  crust  over  the  surface  of 
this  repeatedly  plowed  land.  When  cold  weather  really 
sets  in,  plow  around  the  heap  again,  two  or  three  times; 
put  on  a  thin  layer  of  straw,  say  four  or  five  inches 
thick,  and  cover  with  the  loose  soil  thrown  up  by  the 
plow.  You  will  find  that  the  plow,  properly  handled, will 
save  more  than  half  the  labor,  and  what  is  better  still, 
the  work  is  likely  to  be  more  thoroughly  done. 

This  last  covering  should  be  delayed  until  cold  weather 
sets  in,  and  it  is  all  the  better  if  the  first  coat  of  earth 
on  the  pit  is  frozen  solid.  I  have  more  than  once  put  on 
this  second  covering  during  a  severe  storm,  with  the  ther- 
mometer almost  down  to  zero.  I  once  had  to  work  with 
every  man  and  team  on  the  farm  to  help  until  ten  o'clock 
at  night  to  cover  my  pits,  so  suddenly  and  savagely  came 
on  the  storm.  We  had  to  keep  the  teams  plowing  rap- 
idly around  the  pits  to  furnish  loose  unfrozen  soil.  There 
was  no  let-up  for  many  weeks.  Had  we  not  done  this, 
the  loss  would  have  been  very  great;  as  it  was,  not  a  root 
or  potato  was  injured.  I  do  not  advocate  delaying  the 


138  GARDENING  FOR  YOUNG  AND   OLD. 

work  quite  so  late  as  this,  but  if  you  get  caught,  do  not 
hesitate  to  work  during  the  storm.  If  you  do  the  work 
well,  you  can  go  to  sleep  afterwards,  with  a  conscious- 
ness that,  no  matter  how  the  storm  may  rage,  your  root 
crops  are  entirely  safe. 

The  method  of  keeping  turnips  here  recommended  is 
generally  adapted  to  keeping  beets,  mangels,  carrots, 
parsnips',  etc. 

FALL,    OR  EARLY  WINTER  TURNIPS. 

As  a  rule,  this  intermediate  class  of  turnips  has  at- 
tracted very  little  attention  in  this  country.  It  would 
not  at  present  be  advisable  to  raise  them  largely.  I 
should  not  raise  them  at  all,  unless  I  had  land  all  ready 
for  the  crop  the  first  or  second  week  in  July,  when  it 
was  too  late  to  be  sure  of  getting  a  crop  of  ruta-bagas. 
In  a  case  like  this,  such  varieties  as  the  Yellow  Aberdeen 
can  be  sown  from  the  middle  of  July  to  the  first  of  Au- 
gust with  great  advantage;  you  can  get  a  large  crop  to  the 
acre;  far  greater  than  you  can  of  the  Strap-leaf,  Flat 
Dutch  and  other  early  varieties  sown  later.  The  Yellow 
Aberdeen  will  keep  in  excellent  condition  from  Decem- 
ber to  February,  and  be  valuable  for  the  table,  when  the 
early  varieties  have  become  pithy  and  tasteless.  When 
better  known,  it  will  prove  a  profitable  variety  for  the 
market  garden,  as  it  has  always  been  for  the  stock  feeder. 
The  cultivation  of  the  Yellow  Aberdeen  and  similar  va- 
rieties, does  not  differ  essentially  from  that  of  the  ruta- 
bagas; it  does  not  need  to  be  sown  so  early,  and  does  not 
require  so  rich  land.  A  soil  in  good  mechanical  condi- 
tion, that  has  been  liberally  manured  for  the  previous 
crop,  will,  by  the  aid  of  a  dressing  of  three  hundred 
pounds  per  acre  of  superphosphate  sown  broadcast,  pro- 
duce a  fine  crop  without  any  other  manure;  but  if  the 
land  has  not  been  manured  for  the  previous  crop,  it  will 


TURNIPS.  139 

be  better  to  give  it  a  moderate  dressing  of  manure,  say 
eight  tons  per  acre,  and  use  the  superphosphate  in  ad- 
dition. Superphosphate  cannot  be  applied  to  any  crop 
where  it  will  do  more  good  than  to  turnips. 

The  Aberdeen  is  a  hardy  variety  and  will  stand  con- 
siderable frost,  but  it  should  be  gathered  before  the  ruta- 
bagas. In  other  words,  you  can  let  ruta-bagas  remain 
later  in  the  field  than  you  can  the  Yellow  Aberdeens  ; 
they  will  not  keep  quite  so  well  as  the  ruta-bagas,  as 
they  contain  more  water  and  are  more  liable  to  get  heated 


Fig.  27.  Fig.  28. 

PURPLE  TOP  STRAP-LEAF.      WHITE  FLAT  DUTCH. 

in  the  pit.     It  is  better  therefore  to  make  the  pit  smaller 
and  to  throw  in  more  dry  earth  among  the  roots. 

CULTIVATION  OF  AUTUMN  TUKNIPS. 

This  class  of  turnips,  of  which  the  Purple  Top  Strap- 
leaf  is  a  popular  variety,  is  usually  grown  with  little  or 
no  cultivation  properly  so  called.  In  England,  they  are 
often  called  Stubble  Turnips,  because  they  can  be  grown 
after  a  crop  of  rye,  wheat,  or  barley  is  harvested. 

We  can  do  the  same  thing  here,  but  our  climate  is  so 
much  hotter  and  dryer,  that  we  shall  have  to  take  con- 
siderable pains  to  get  land  from  which  a  grain  crop  has 
just  been  harvested,  sufficiently  moist  and  mellow  to  in- 
sure the  germination  of  turnip  seed.  There  are  times, 


140  GARDENING   FOE   YOUNG  AND   OLD. 

however,  when  it  can  be  done,  and  done  to  great  advan- 
tage. Land  should  be  plowed  immediately  after  harvest, 
and  the  roller  should  follow  the  plow.  You  cannot  roll 
it  too  much  while  dry ;  follow  the  roller  a  few  days  later 
with  a  smoothing  harrow,  weighted  until  it  will  cut 
through  the  dry  clods,  follow  with  a  roller,  so  as  to  break 
up  or  crush  the  clods  brought  to  the  surface  by  the  har- 
row, continue  to  roll  and  harrow,  until  you  have  secured 
a  fine  tilth.  If  the  weather  reporter  would  send  us  some 
rain,  if  nothing  more  than  a  thunder  shower,  we  should 
at  this  time  accept  it  as  a  favor ;  this  thoroughly  worked, 
but  dusty  soil  would  drink  it  in,  and  we  could  immedi- 
ately start  the  drill,  feeling  confident  that  in  two  or  three 
days  the  turnips  would  be  up. 

Do  not  forget  to  sow  superphosphate  at  the  rate  of 
from  two  hundred  to  three  hundred  pounds  per  acre.  If 
the  land  is  in  good  condition,  and  especially  if  it  has  been 
manured  for  the  previous  crop,  the  superphosphate  is  all 
that  is  necessary.  It  is  better  to  sow  the  phosphate  pre- 
vious to  rolling  and  harrowing,  but  it  is  not  well,  I  think, 
to  plow  it  under.  At  this  dry  season  of  the  year,  it  is 
well  to  roll  the  land  after  drilling  in  the  seed  and  to  roll 
it  thoroughly. 

I  would  drill  in  the  turnips  in  rows  not  less  than  two 
feet  apart,  and  drop  at  least  four  seeds  to  each  inch  of  row, 
or,  say  from  three  to  four  pounds  per  acre  ;  if  the  land 
is  in  good  condition,  this  thick  seeding  is  almost  certain, 
with  the  aid  of  superphosphate,  to  enable  the  plants  to 
escape  the  ravages  of  the  beetle. 

The  cultivation  is  similar  to  that  previously  recom- 
mended for  ruta-bagas,  except  that  we  leave  the  plants 
a  little  thicker  in  the  row — say  seven  inches  apart.  If 
the  plants  are  properly  singled  out  to  this  distance  and 
the  cultivator  is  used  between  the  rows  as  often  as  is 
necessary,  nothing  more  will  be  required  until  the  crop 
is  ready  to  be  pulled. 


SWEET  HEKBS.  141 

The  sooner  the  crop  is  marketed,  the  better.  At  the 
price  usually  obtained  for  them,  these  turnips  are  quite 
profitable.  It  is  not  at  all  a  difficult  matter  to  grow 
from  four  hundred  to  five  hundred  bushels  per  acre. 


SWEET  HEKBS. 

Little  need  to  be  said  in  regard  to  the  cultivation  of 
Sweet  Herbs.  With  the  exception  of  Sage  and  Thyme, 
they  are  not  very  extensively  grown  for  market. 

SAGE. 

Sage  is  grown  more  extensively  for  market  than  any 
other  sweet  herb.  It  is  called  Sage  because  its  use  was 
supposed  to  strengthen  the  memory  and  make  people 
sage,  or  wise. 

It  is  used  extensively  for  seasoning  or  flavoring  sausages, 
the  stuffing  of  ducks,  geese,  etc.,  and  occasionally  for 
flavoring  cheese. 

The  plants  can  be  propagated  by  cuttings,  precisely  as 
we  propagate  currants,  but  the  usual  and  better  way  is, 
to  grow  it  from  seed.  If  you  have  good  seed,  it  is  an 
easy  matter  to  raise  the  plants.  For  some  reason,  how- 
ever, Sage  seed  is  often  very  poor  and  should  be  carefully 
tested  before  sowing.  There  is  no  difficulty  whatever  in 
growing  good  seed. 

If  you  wish  only  a  few  plants  for  your  own  use,  sow  a 
paper  of  seed  in  a  box  in  the  house,  the  middle  of  March, 
in  rows  two  inches  apart  and  two  seeds  to  each  inch  of 
row.  Transplant  out  of  doors  as  soon  as  the  weather  is 
warm  and  settled. 

The  seed,  however,  can  be  sown  out  of  doors  in  the 
spring,  as  soon  as  the  soil  is  in  good  condition.  It  is  best 
to  prepare  the  soil  the  fall  previous.  A  light,  warm, 
sandy  soil  in  a  sheltered  spot,  with  a  sunny  exposure  is 


142  GARDENING   FOE  YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

best.  Sow  the  seed  in  rows  wide  enough  apart  to  admit 
the  use  of  the  hoe,  putting  in  two  seeds  to  each  inch  ; 
cover  the  seed  a  quarter  of  an  inch  deep,  and  if  the  soil 
is  dry,  pat  it  down  with  the  back  of  the  spade.  As  soon 
as  the  plants  appear,  hoe  lightly  between  the  rows  and 
keep  the  bed  free  from  weeds.  This  is  all  that  need  be 
done  until  the  plants  are  ready  to  set  out  where  they  are 
to  grow. 

The  land  for  Sage  should  be  dry,  loose,  and  very  rich. 
The  plants  are  small  and  grow  slowly  at  first.  Before 
taking  them  out  of  the  seed-bed,  the  soil  should  be 
deeply  and  carefully  broken  up  with  a  fork,  six  or 
eight  inches  deep,  and  the  bed  thoroughly  watered  until 
all  the  soil  to  the  depth  of  the  sage  roots  is  completely 
saturated.  It  requires  a  good  deal  of  water,  but  if  the 
work  is  well  done,  the  young  sage  plants  can  be  set  out 
even  in  the  hottest  weather,  and  on  comparatively  dry 
soil,  without  the  loss  of  a  single  plant. 

It  is,  however,  very  desirable  to  make  the  land  very 
fine  and  moist,  by  thorough  cultivation.  It  will  usually 
be  found  better  to  plow  the  land  just  before  setting  out 
the  plants,  as  this  will  bring  to  the  surface  the  moist 
soil.  After  plowing,  roll,  harrow,  and  smooth  off  the 
surface.  Mark  off  the  rows  (if  the  horse-hoe  is  to  be 
used),  twenty-one  to  twenty-four  inches  apart,  and  set 
out  the  plants  ten  inches  apart  in  the  row. 

Where  land  is  valuable,  and  the  crop  is  to  be  hand- 
hoed,  the  rows  need  not  be  more  than  twelve  inches 
apart.  In  fact,  the  better  way  is,  to  mark  off  the  land 
both  ways  twelve  inches  apart,  and  set  the  plants  where 
the  lines  cross.  If  the  weather  is  dry,  you  must  be  very 
careful  to  press  the  soil  firmly  about  the  roots.  Set  out 
the  plants  so  that  the  lower  leaves  are  just  above  the  sur- 
face. As  soon  as  the  plants  get  over  the  effects  of  trans- 
planting, go  through  with  a  hoe  to  break  the  crust  and 
kill  the  weeds;  repeat  the  operation  as  often  as  necessary. 


SWEET  HEKBS.  143 

As  soon  as  the  plants  are  in  full  flower,  you  can  begin  to 
cut  and  market  the  crop.  Where  the  rows  are  only  a  foot 
apart,  the  best  way  is  to  cut  out  every  other  row.  Tie 
tiie  sage  in  bunches  and  market  it,  leaving  the  other 
rows  to  grow  larger.  If  the  land  is  rich,  the  plants 
which  are  left  will  continue  to  grow  late  into  the  fall,  and 
completely  cover  the  land.  After  cutting  out  every  other 
row,  run  the  cultivator  between  the  remaining  rows  and 
hoe  out  the  weeds.  Where  the  plants  are  set  out  in  rows, 
twenty-one  inches  to  two  feet  apart,  and  the  land  kept 
clean  and  mellow  by  the  frequent  use  of  the  horse-hoe, 
the  total  money  return  is  not  so  great  as  that  from  the 
double  crop,  but  it  is  far  less  labor,  and  in  the  field-gar- 
den will  be  the  better  plan.  If  the  sage  can  not  be  sold 
green  in  the  market,  tie  it  up  into  bunches  and  let  it  dry; 
it  can  then  be  safely  shipped  to  any  distance. 

THYME. 

The  cultivation  of  Thyme  is  similar  to  that  of  Sage. 
The  seeds  are  smaller  and  the  plants 
not  quite  so  vigorous.  The  soil  where 
the  seed  is  sown  should  be  made  even 
richer  and  finer  than  for  Sage,  and 
the  seed  must  not  be  covered  more 
than  an  eighth  of  an  inch  deep,  and 
the  bed  well  patted  with  the  back  of 
the  spade.  In  all  other  respects 
Thyme  may  be  treated  precisely  as 
Sage.  If  preferred,  the  seed  may  be 
sown  where  the  plants  are  intended 
to  remain.  Sow  in  rows  twenty-one 
inches  apart,  and  drill  in  the  seed  as 
shallow  as  possible,  dropping  three  or  four  seeds  to  each 
inch  of  row.  It  will  be  necessary  to  mix  the  seed  with 
three  or  four  times  its  bulk  of  fine  dry  sand,  or  the  drill 


144  GARDENING   FOR  YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

will  sow  it  too  thick.  Cultivate  and  hoe,  and  as  the 
plants  begin  to  crowd,  thin  them  out.  These  young 
plants  can  be  drawn  out  by  the  roots,  and  put  in  bunches 
for  home  use,  or  for  market.  This  thinning  out  can  be 
continued  at  different  times  until  the  plants  are  left  from 
eight  to  ten  inches  apart  in  the  row. 

In  England,  it  is  thought  that  thyme  must  be  grown 
on  the  poorest  of  poor  land,  else  it  will  lack  the  desired 
flavor.  In  our  dry,  hot  climate,  however,  thyme  will 
stand  rich  land  and  good  cultivation.  There  are  two 
kinds;  one  is  what  the  European  seed  catalogues  call 
"Hardy  Winter,"  or  "Evergreen."  The  leaves  are 
lemon-scented,  and  by  some  it  is  preferred  to  the  com- 
mon, or  Broad -leaved  kind.  Both  can  be  grown  from 
seed,  or  propagated  by  division  of  the  roots,  but  better 
plants  are  obtained  from  seed.  The  seeds  are  exceed- 
ingly small,  and  must  be  sown  on  the  best  prepared  and 
finest  land.  They  come  up  slowly,  and  it  is  desirable  to 
sow  them  thickly.  It  will  do  no  harm  if  you  have  to 
thin  out  fifty  plants  to  one  that  is  ultimately  left.  One 
pound  of  seed  to  the  acre  will  be  amply  sufficient. 

Thyme  is  put  up  in  bunches  and  marketed  like  sage, 
or  it  may  be  dried  and  shipped  to  any  distance.  Any 
one  who  has  an  evaporator  for  drying  fruit,  could  easily 
devise  a  plan  for  drying  bunches  of  sweet  herbs,  and 
make  the  business  highly  profitable. 

SUMMER   SAVORY. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  Savory;  a  Winter,  or  perennial, 
and  the  Summer,  or  annual  sort;  the  latter  is  the  best. 
The  seed  may  be  sown  in  March,  in  a  box  in  the  house, 
and  the  plants  set  out  in  the  garden  as  soon  as  the 
weather  will  permit.  This  is  not  necessary,  however, 
as  the  plants  will  do  well  if  the  seed  is  sown  in  any  good 
garden  soil  early  in  the  spring,  or  as  soon  as  the  ground 


SWEET  HEEBS.  145 

and  weather  are  warm.  If  it  is  intended  to  transplant 
the  plants,  sow  the  seed  in  rows,  wide  enough  apart  to 
admit  the  use  of  a  narrow  hoe,  or,  if  the  plants  are  to 
remain  where  the  seed  is  sown,  sow  in  rows  fifteen  inches 
apart,  and  thin  out  the  plants  enough  to  admit  the  use  of 
a  hoe.  The  seed  should  not  be 
covered  more  than  a  quarter  of  an 
inch  deep,  and  if  the  ground  is 
moist,  the  shallower  the  better. 
Drop  five  or  six  seeds  to  the  inch 
of  row,  as  the  thicker  you  sow,  the 
easier  it  is  to  hoe  between  the 
rows  of  plants  just  before  they  are 
cracking  the  ground,  and  to  keep 
the  bed  free  from  weeds.  Four 
pounds  of  seed  will  be  amply  suf- 
ficient for  an  acre.  If  grown  by 
the  acre,  I  would  sow  in  rows,  Fiff.  SO.-SUMMEB  SAVOET. 
from  twenty-one  to  twenty-four  inches  apart,  and  cul- 
tivate with  a  horse-hoe,  and  thin  out  the  plants  as  recom- 
mended for  thyme. 

SWEET    MARJORAM. 

The  cultivation  of  Sweet  Marjoram  is  precisely  similar 
to  that  of  Summer  Savory,  except,  perhaps,  that  the 
plants  do  not  bear  transplantation  so  well,  and  conse- 
quently it  is  better  to  sow  the  seed  where  they  are  intend- 
ed to  remain,  in  rows  fifteen  inches  apart.  Sow  a  plenty 
of  seed,  say  four  or  five  seeds  to  each  inch  of  row,  and 
ultimately  thin  out  the  plants  to  ten  inches  apart ;  or, 
the  rows  may  be  sown  twenty-one  to  twenty-four  inches 
apart,  and  in  this  case,  the  plants  may  be  left  thicker  in 
the  row,  or  just  wide  enough  apart  to  admit  the  use  of 
a  narrow  hoe.  If  too  thick,  every  second  plant  may  be 
drawn  out  for  early  use. 
7 


14:6  GARDENING    FOE   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

BOBAGE. 

Borage  is  not  extensively  grown  in  this  country,  and 
there  is  little  or  no  demand  for 
it  in  market.  The  seeds  are 
large  and  can  be  sown  in  the 
open  ground  in  rows,  fifteen 
inches  apart,  dropping  one  to 
each  inch  of  row. 

Borage  can  be  profitably  grown 
for  plowing  under  as  a  green 
crop.  The  leaves  are  so  rich  in 
nitrate  of  potash  or  saltpetre, 
that  when  dry  they  will  burn 
like  touch-paper.  Borage  is  used 
Fig.  31.— BOBAGE.  onjy  jn  the  green  state,  and 

principally  for  flavoring  cooling  beverages,  like  lemonade. 

ROSEMARY. 

Kosemary  should  be  sown  in  rows  about  fifteen  inches 
apart  each  way.  The  better  plan  is, 
to  drop  five  or  six  seeds  in  each  hill, 
thinning  out  to  a  single  plant  before 
the  plants  begin  to  crowd  each  other. 
Cover  the  seed  about  a  quarter  of  an 
inch  deep, 

CORIANDER. 

The  young  tender  leaves  of  Coriander 
are  used  in  salads  and  for  flavoring 
soups.  The  plant  is  easily  cultivated. 
The  seeds,  are  round  and  nearly  as 
large  as  a  Sweet  Pea.  Sow  in  rows  fifteen  inches  apart, 
dropping  the  seeds  about  an  inch  apart  in  the  row,  cover- 


SWEET   HEKBS.  147 

ing  half  an  inch  deep.  Light  sandy  soil  is  best  for  this 
crop ;  thin  out  the  plants  for  use  before  they  begin  to 
crowd  each  other,  ultimately  leaving  them  seven  or  eight 
inches  apart  in  the  row.  The  plants  soon  run  up  to 
seed,  and  it  is  best  to  sow  at  intervals  of  three  or  four 
weeks  for  succession. 

FENNEL. 

This  plant  is  closely  related  to,  and  can  be  grown  as 
directed  for  Coriander. 

LAVENDER. 

Lavender  is  grown  solely  for  its  perfume.  For  home 
use,  the  long  stems,  five  or  six  inches  in  length,  are  cut 
from  the  bushes  when  in  flower,  tied  in  small  bunches 
and  dried.  The  flowers  and  stoms  are  placed  in  drawers, 
or  closets  among  table-linen,  clothing,  etc.  The  plants 
are  easily  grown  from  seed,  or  they  may  be  propagated 
by  dividing  the  roots  of  old  plants.  It  is  better  to  grow 
them  from  seed. 

Sow  the  seed  in  a  box  in  the  house  about  the  middle 
of  March,  in  rows  one  inch  apart,  dropping  two  or  three 
seeds  to  each  inch  of  row.  If  the  plants  begin  to  crowd 
each  other  before  it  is  time  to  set  them  out  in  the  open 
ground,  transplant  into  a  larger  box,  pricking  them  out 
to  two  or  three  inches  apart  each  way.  These  strong, 
stocky  plants,  after  hardening  off,  should  be  set  out  on 
loose,  warm,  sandy  soil,  in  the  garden,  from  fifteen  to 
twenty  inches  apart  each  way.  The  younger  and  weaker 
plants,  if  the  weather  is  warm,  might  be  set  out  in  a  bed 
in  the  garden  in  rows  ten  inches  apart  and  two  or  three 
inches  apart  in  the  row.  In  this  bed  they  may  be  allowed 
to  remain  until  the  following  spring,  when  they  can  be 
taken  up  with  a  good  ball  of  earth  and  set  out  wherever 


148  GARDENING   FOE   YOUNG    AND   OLD. 

there  is  room  for  them  in  the  flower  beds,  or  in  rows  two 
feet  apart  and  from  fifteen  to  twenty  inches  apart  in  the 
row.  Lavender  will  in  time  be  extensively  grown  in  this 
country. 

CARAWAY. 

The  seeds  of  Caraway  are  sometimes  introduced  into 
cheese  and  mixed  with  bread,  cake,  cookies,  etc.  The 
leaves,  when  young,  are  sometimes  used  for  flavoring 
soups  and  salads.  The  plants  are  easily  grown,  and  may 
be  treated  as  recommended  for  Coriander. 

WORMWOOD. 

Wormwood  is  perhaps  not  entitled  to  be  called  a  sweet 
herb,  but  it  is  certainly  a  very  useful  plant,  and  should 
be  grown  in  every  farmer's  garden.  For  sprains,  worm- 
wood and  vinegar  is  a  time-honored  remedy.  The  leaves 
are  chopped  up  with  Rue  and  Cress,  and  mixed  with 
the  food  of  young  turkies.  An  infusion  of  Wormwood 
seeds  with  Chamomile  flowers,  is  often  taken  as  a  tonic. 
Wormwood  can  be  sown  in  a  warm  border  early  in  April, 
in  rows  fifteen  inches  apart,  and  thinned  to  ten  inches 
apart  in  the  row.  Next  year  every  second  plant  may  be 
dug  up  for  transplanting,  and  still  leave  those  on  the 
original  bed  thick  enough.  If  the  plants  are  dug  up 
with  a  good  ball  of  earth  their  growth  will  not  be 
checked. 

RUE. 

This  very  old-fashioned  medicinal  plant  can  be  grown 
in  the  same  way  as  Wormwood. 

ANISE. 

Anise  does  not  transplant  readily,  and  the  seed  should 
be  sown  where  it  is  intended  that  the  plants  shall  re- 


SWEET   HEEBS.  149 

main,  in  drills  fifteen  inches  apart,  dropping  two  seeds  to 
each  inch  of  row,  and  covering  half  an  inch  deep.  The 
plants  may  be  thinned  out  to  five  or  six  inches  apart  in 
the  row. 

BASIL. 

Start  the  seeds  in  a  box  in  the  house,  or  if  this  is  not 
convenient,  sow  in  a  warm  border  in  rows  twelve  inches 
apart,  dropping  two  or  three  seeds  to  each  inch  of  row. 
The  plants  can  be  used  when  two  or  three  inches  high. 
Thin  out  for  use  until  the  plants  are  left  seven  or  eight 
inches  apart  in  the  row.  The  leaves  have  a  strong  clove- 
like  odor,  and  are  used  in  soups  and  salads. 

DILL. 

This  can  be  grown  in  the  way  recommended  for  Ba- 
sil. It  delights  in  a  warm,  dry,  sandy  soil. 


CULTIVATION   OF    FLOWERS. 


Some  people  think,  or  rather  they  say,  that  it  does  not 
pay  to  cultivate  flowers.  Whatever  they  may  say,  I  do 
not  believe  that  they  really  think  so.  If  they  do,  they 
are  certainly  mistaken.  It  pays  wonderfully  well — just 
as  it  pays  to  be  clean  and  neat,  kind  and  polite.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  argue  the  question.  I  feel  sure  that  my 
young  friends  love  flowers,  and  my  business  is  to  tell  how 
to  grow  them  with  the  least  trouble  and  expense,  in  the 
greatest  perfection  and  profusion.  For  my  own  part,  I 
would  rather  see  them  in  profusion  than  in  perfection. 
I  do  not  care  how  perfect  they  are,  but  I  want  a  good 
many  of  them;  this  is  especially  true  of  annual  flowers,  or 
flowers  grown  every  year  from  seeds.  We  will  talk  about 
them  in  alphabetical  order. 

ALYSSUM. 

Sweet  Alyssum,  as  it  is  usually  called,  is  a  very  hardy 
plant,  growing  about  six  inches  high 
with  clusters  of  small  white  flowers, 
decidedly  fragrant  and  very  pretty. 
Sow  the  seeds  of  this  plant  as  soon  as 
the  frost  is  out  of  the  ground  in  the 
spring,  in  rows  wide  enough  apart  to 
admit  the  use  of  a 
hoe.    Drop  three  or 
four  seeds  to  each 
inch  of    row,    and 
after     the     plants 
are    fairly  started, 

Fig.  33.— SWEET  ALYSSUM.  ...  J 

thin  out  to  one  or 

two  inches  apart.     Keep  the  ground  well  hoed  and  free 
(150) 


AGEBATUM — ASPEEULA.  151 

from  weeds,  the  plant  is  so  hardy  that  it  is  not  necessary 
to  sow  the  seed  in  the  hot-bed. 

AGEEATUM. 

This  is  a  useful  flower  for  bouquets,  and  very  robust, 
some  of  the  varieties  growing  two  feet  high,  and  pro- 
ducing a  great  abundance  of  white  or  lavender-colored 
flowers.  Sow  a  few  seeds  in  a  box  in  the  house,  and  set 
out  the  plants  fifteen  to  twenty  inches  apart  as  soon 
as  the  weather  will  permit. 

ABEONIA. 

Abronia  umbellata,  the  species  most  cultivated,  is  a  Cal- 
ifornian  plant,  trailing  along  on  the  ground,  and  some- 
what resembling  the  Verbena.  It  has  fragrant  lilac  and 
rose-colored  flowers,  which  are  very  abundant,  and  con- 
tinue in  bloom  until  cut  down  by  frost.  Sow  the  seed 
in  a  hot-bed  or  in  a  box  in  the  house,  and  set  out  the 
plants  fifteen  inches  apart,  as  recommended  elsewhere 
for  Drummond's  Phlox. 

AGEOSTEMMA. 

The  annual  Agrostemmas  are  sometimes  called,  I  do 
not  know  why,  "The  Eose  of  Heaven."  The  roses  of 
earth  are  much  more  beautiful.  Still  the  annual  Agros- 
temma  is  a  hardy,  free  blooming  plant,  with  pretty  flow- 
ers, somewhat  resembling  our  old-fashioned  pinks.  Cul- 
tivation similar  to  Phlox. 

ASPEEULA. 

This  is  a  hardy  annual,  growing  about  ten  inches  high; 
a  profuse  bloomer,  with  fragrant,  and  pretty  lavender- 
colored  flowers,  in  clusters.  Cultivate  the  same  as  Sweet 
Alyssum. 


152 


GARDENING   FOB   YOUNG   AND    OLD. 


ASTEES—  CHINA. 

We  have  now  China  Asters  as  large  and  handsome,  as 
double,  and  as  perfect  as  the  Dahlia.  I  know  of  no  an- 
nual flower  that  has  been  so  wonderfully  improved  as 
this,  during  the  past  twenty-five  years.  No  garden 
should  be  without  its  bed  of  Asters.  You  can  not  have  too 
many  of  them;  they  are  in  full  bloom  in  autumn,  when 
most  other  flowers  have  disappeared,  and  they  continue  in 
perfection  until  cut  down  by  frost.  The  cultivation  of 

Asters  presents  no  dif- 
ficulties that  may  not  be 
readily  overcome  by  the 
exercise  of  a  little  pa- 
tience and  skill.  Asters 
can  be  transplanted  read- 
ily, and,  if  convenient, 
can  be  sown  in  a  box  in 
thehouse,in  rows  aninch 
and  a  half  or  two  inches 
apart,  and  two  or  three 
seeds  to  each  inch  of 
row;  cover  very  lightly 
with  fine  soil,  or  sifted 
dry  moss.  When  the 
plants  begin  to  crowd, 
prick  them  out  into 
other  boxes,  or  into  a 

Fig.  34.-A8TEK-P^ON™WEBE1>. 


more  room.  The  oftener  they  are  transplanted,  and  the 
more  room  you  give  them,  the  more  stocky  and  better  will 
be  the  plants.  As  soon  as  the  weather  becomes  settled,  and 
the  soil  is  warm  and  in  fine  condition,  set  out  in  the  bed 
or  border,  watering  the  plants  before  taking  them  up,  un- 
til the  soil  is  thoroughly  saturated.  Do  not  pull  up  the 
plants,  but  take  them  up  with  a  hand-fork  or  trowel,  and 


CHIKA   ASTERS. 


153 


with  the  fingers  pressing  the  moist  earth  into  a  ball 
around  the  roots,  set  them  in  the  ground  up  to  the  lower 
leaves,  and  if  the  weather  is  dry,  press  the  soil  firmly 
around  the  roots.  If  the  soil  is  moist,  it  must  not  be 
pressed  so  firmly  around  the  roots.  The  proper  distance 
apart  depends  on  the  variety;  I  usually  plant  the  large 


Fig.  35. — ASTER  FLO\VER. 

kinds  fifteen  inches  apart  each  way;  the  smaller,  or  dwarf 
varieties,  should  be  planted  in  rows  fifteen  inches  apart, 
and  every  seven  and  a  half  inches  in  the  row.  Keep  the 
ground  entirely  free  from  weeds  by  the  constant  use  of 
the  hoe  or  rake.  During  a  severe  drouth,  the  ground 
may  be  mulched  with  the  clippings  of  the  lawn.  "Wa- 
tering with  a  solution  of  superphosphate,  say  one  table- 
spoonful  to  a  gallon  of  water,  will  prove  beneficial. 

The  varieties  of  Asters  are  numerous,  and  can  be  raised 
true  from  seed.  The  lamented  Darwin  states  that  he 
procured  packets  of  twenty-five  named  varieties  of  com- 


154  GAKDENING   FOR   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

mon  and  quilled  Asters,  and  raised  one  hundred  and 
twenty-four  plants,  of  which  all  except  ten  were  true; 
many  of  the  sub-varieties,  however,  so  closely  resemble 
each  other,  that  it  is  not  worth  while  trying  to  keep  them 
distinct.  Asters  may  be  divided  into  three  classes :  the 
tall-growing  kinds,  of  which  Truifaut's  Pseony-flowered 
Perfection,  and  New  Eose,  are  well  known,  and  excellent 
varieties.  The  plants  of  these  grow  about  two  feet  in 


Fig.   36.— D WAKE    BOUQUET  ASTEB. 

height,  and  it  is  desirable  to  tie  them  to  stakes,  as  they 
are  liable  to  be  broken  during  a  high  wind.  There  is  a 
medium  class,  growing  about  fifteen  inches  high;  one 
of  the  best  of  these  is  New  Chrysanthemum-flowered 
Dwarf.  The  third  class  is  a  dwarf  kind,  consisting  of  a 
pyramidal  mass  of  flowers  with  a  few  leaves  at  the  base 
near  the  ground.  Some  think  they  are  very  beautiful. 
They  range  from  five  to  ten  inches  in  height,  and  go  by 
the  name  of  "  Dwarf  Bouquet  Asters." 


BALSAMS. 

BALSAMS. 


155 


Like  the  Aster,  the  Balsam  has  been  greatly  improved. 
It  was  formerly  called  Lady's  Slipper,  from  the  shape 
of  the  flower;  the  plant  was  large  and  coarse,  and  had 
little  to  recommend  it,  except  the  green,  healthy  appear- 
ance of  the  foliage,  and  the  vigor  of  its  growth.  When 


Fig.  37. — BALSAMS — PLANTS  AND  FLOWERS. 

you  wish  to  improve  a  plant,  or  animal,  native  vigor,  or 
healthy  growth,  is  one  of  the  essential  points  to  start 
with.  If  you  wished  to  whittle  a  doll  out  of  a  piece  of 
pine  wood,  the  original  stick  ought  to  be  a  good  deal 
larger  than  the  doll,  so  that  there  may  be  an  opportunity 
to  make  it  into  the  desired  form,  by  cutting  away  the 


156  GARDENING   FOE   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

superfluous  parts.  So  it  is  in  improving  a  plant;  we  make 
it  smaller  and  more  beautiful  by  breeding  off  what  we  do 
not  want,  and  encouraging  the  development  and  growth  of 
those  parts  which  we  desire.  The  Balsam  of  to-day  has 
branches  and  leaves  so  much  smaller  and  finer  than  those 
of  the  old-fashioned  Lady's  Slipper,  that  our  great-grand- 
mothers would  hardly  recognize  the  plant,  the  flowers  of 
which  are  much  larger  and  more  handsome  than  formerly. 
The  Balsam  still  retains  much  of  its  native  vigor;  it  is  a 
healthy,  hardy,  clean-looking  annual;  it  is  transplanted 
easily,  and  is  a  good  plant  of  which  to  sow  a  few  seeds, 
[selecting,  of  course,  the  choicest  varieties,]  in  a  box  in  the 
house,  and  treat  the  plants  as  recommended  for  Asters. 
With  Balsams,  as  with  Asters,  it  is  desirable  to  get  good, 
stocky  plants,  and  the  oftener  we  transplant  them  when 
young,  and  the  more  room  we  give  them,  the  more  satis- 
faction will  they  give  us  when  set  out  in  the  garden.  The 
seed  can  be  sown  in  the  open  ground  where  the  plants  are 
to  remain,  or  it  may  be  sown  in  a  warm  border,  in  rows 
wide  enough  apart  to  admit  the  use  of  a  narrow  hoe. 
Drop  two  or  three  seeds  to  each  inch  of  row,  and  cover 
as  lightly  as  possible,  if  the  ground  is  moist.  If  the  soil 
is  dry,  press  down  the  soil  after  the  seed  is.  sown,  by  pat- 
ting the  whole  surface  of  the  bed  with  the  back  of  the 
spade.  As  soon  as  the  plants  appear,  hoe  lightly  between 
the  rows,  pulling  out  all  the  weeds,  and  if  any  of  the 
plants  are  too  thick  in  some  parts  of  the  row,  transplant 
them,  either  into  a  new  row,  or  to  the  first  row  when 
there  are  not  enough  plants.  It  is  very  desirable  not  to 
have  them  too  thick,  for,  as  already  said,  strong,  stocky 
plants  are  wanted  there,  and  you  cannot  have  such  unless 
they  have  plenty  of  room  in  which  to  grow.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  plant  Balsams  in  a  bed  by  themselves;  they 
look  quite  as  well  when  set  out  separately,  as  when  massed 
together.  If  there  is  any  part  of  the  flower  garden  where 
you  do  not  know  what  else  to  set  out,  put  in  a  Balsam. 


BAKTOtfXA.  157 

The  Balsam  is  a  hardy,  vigorous  plant,  and  will  do  well 
if  sown  in  the  open  ground,  where  it  is  intended  to  re- 
main, but  you  will  get  much  finer  flowers  by  sowing  early 
and  transplanting  frequently.  Frequent  transplanting 
checks  the  vigorous  growth  of  the  branches  and  favors 
the  development  of  the  flowers.  The  branches  may  be 
pinched  off,  and  the  plant  trained  to  sticks,  or  to  a  trellis 
in  any  desired  form,  as  shown  in  the  illustrations  on 
page  155.  If  planted  in  a  bed  by  themselves,  Balsams 
should  be  set  out  in  rows,  fifteen  to  eighteen  inches 
apart,  and  from  ten  to  eighteen  inches  apart  in  the 
row.  My  own  plan  is,  to  set  them  fifteen  inches  apart 
each  way.  There  are  many  varieties  of  Balsams,  but,  ex- 
cept for  the  professional  florist,  the  three  following  varie- 
ties are  most  likely  to  give  general  satisfaction:  Camellia- 
flowered,  in  mixed  colors;  Eose-flowered,  double,  in 
mixed  colors;  Extra-double-dwarf,  mixed  colors. 


BARTONIA. 

The  Bartonia  aurea,  or  Golden  Bartonia,  is  a  native  of 
California.  The  plant  is  about  eighteen  inches  high,  the 
numerous  large  and  showy  bright  yellow  flowers  having  a 
metallic  lustre.  The  seed  should  be  sown  in  the  open 
ground,  in  rich  soil  that  has  been  heavily  manured  and 
thoroughly  prepared  the  autumn  previous.  Sow  as  early 
in  the  spring  as  the  ground  is  in  good  condition,  in  rows 
fifteen  inches  apart,  dropping  a  seed  every  two  or  three 
inches  in  the  row.  The  plants  are  not  transplanted 
readily,  and  it  is  best  to  sow  where  they  are  intended  to 
remain.  Hoe  lightly  and  frequently,  between  the  rows, 
and  keep  the  bed  entirely  free  from  weeds.  In  a  severe 
drouth,  it  would  be  well  to  mulch  the  soil,  between  the 
rows,  with  the  clippings  of  the  lawn. 


158  GARDENING  FOR  YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

BRACHYCOME. 

The  Brachycome  (B.iberidifolia)  is  an  Australian  plant, 
found  on  the  banks  of  Swan  River,  and  popularly  called 
the  "Swan  River  Daisy."  It  grows  about  eight  inches 
high,  and  produces  an  abundance  of  flowers.  For  the 
first  eight  years  after  its  introduction  there  was  no  vari- 
ation in  the  color  or  character  of  its  flowers ;  but  we 
have  now  two  distinct  varieties,  one  pure  white  and  the 
other  rose-colored.  This  is  a  useful  edging  plant  to  sow 
around  the  borders  of  a  bed,  leaving  the  plants  four  or 
five  inches  apart.  It  deserves  far  more  attention  than  it 
has  yet  received. 

CANDYTUFT. 

Candytuft  can  be  sown  either  in  spring  or  in  autumn. 
It  is  a  very  hardy  plant,  easily  grown,  and  a*general  favor- 
ite. I  like  to  see  a  large  bed  of  it  sown  early  in  spring  in 


Fig.   38.— CANDYTUFT. 

rows  one  foot  apart,  and  the  seeds  sown  quite  thickly  in 
the  row — say  three  or  four  seeds  to  the  inch.  By  the 
middle  of  June,  the  flowers  will  begin  to  show  themselves, 


CAKDYTUFT.  159 

and  will  continue  to  flower  for  several  weeks.  This  is 
a  very  easy  and  a  very  common  method  of  growing  Candy- 
tuft. Finer  plants  and  larger  flowers  can  be  grown  by  giv- 
ing the  plants  more  room,  and  they  will  continue  much 
longer  in  bloom.  Candytuft  can  be  readily  transplanted, 
and  a  good  plan  is,  to  set  them  out  in  rows  nine  inches 
apart  each  way  ;  the  land  should  be  rich  and  kept  entirely 
free  from  weeds.  Candytuft  is  not  only  very  pretty  but 
it  is  very  sweet;  you  cannot  have  too  much  of  it  in  the 
house,  and  for  the  good  of  the  plants  you  cannot  cut  off 
the  flowers  too  frequently.  If  you  allow  it  to  go  to  seed 
the  plant  is  soon  exhausted,  and  the  way  to  prevent  this 
is  to  cut  the  flowers  as  fast  as  they  appear. 

I  have  heard  people  say  that  they  raised  flowers  not 
for  bouquets,  or  for  use  in  the  house,  but  because  they 
wanted  to  see  them  in  the  garden.  I  have  a  dim  recol- 
lection of  making  some  such  remark  myself,  when  I  was 
a  boy,  and  did  not  know  any  better,  Now,  I  like  to  see 
flowers  in  the  house  ;  in  the  parlor,  in  the  library,  or  on 
the  dining-room  table,  anywhere  and  everywhere.  But 
if  one  prefers  to  have  them  in  the  garden,  if  he  does  not 
care  about  cutting  them,  l3ut  would  rather  let  them 
grow,  there  is  no  objection.  In  this  case,  Candytuft 
should  be  sown  in  succession,  say  as  early  as  possible  in 
spring,  and  then  at  intervals  of  two  weeks,  until  the  first 
of  July.  Again  in  August  and  September,  sow  a  bed  in 
a  sheltered  portion  of  the  garden,  where  the  plants  can 
remain  all  the  winter. 

There  are  numerous  varieties ;  the  Pure  White  being 
the  most  popular.  It  is  fragrant  and  a  profuse  bloomer. 
Carminia  is  a  new  variety  which  bids  fair  to  be  a  decided 
acquisition.  These,  with  the  Sweet-scented  Pure  White, 
from  carefully  grown  seed,  are  all  that  will  be  needed, 
except  by  the  professional  florist. 


160  GAKDENING   FOB   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

CALENDULA,  OK  POT-MAKIGOLD. 

The  Pot- Marigolds  are  well-known  and  popular  flow- 
ers. They  have  been  greatly  improved,  and  some  of  the 
new  varieties  are  decidedly  superior  to  the  old  kind. 
Cultivation  similar  to  that  of  Phlox  Drummondii. 

COEEOPSIS,  OR  CALLIOPSIS. 

The  Coreopsis  is  a  hardy,  easily  grown  and  very  showy 
flower.  It  is  best  to  sow  the  seeds  in  a  bed  by  them- 
selves, in  rows  fifteen  inches  apart,  and  thin  the  plants  to 
three  or  four  inches  apart  in  the  rows.  The  flowers  are 
on  slender  foot-stalks  over  two  feet  high.  The  soil  can 
not  be  made  too  rich,  or  kept  too  clean,  as  much  of  the 
beauty  of  the  bed  will  depend  on  having  the  plants  strong 
and  vigorous.  A  weedy,  poverty-stricken  bed  of  Coreop- 
sis presents  a  sorry  appearance,  but  if  the  plants  are  well 
grown  the  bed  will  be  very  showy  and  attractive. 

CANNA— INDIAN    SHOT. 

The  Cannas  are  now  attracting  much  attention ;  being 
large,  vigorous  growing  plants.  Some  of  the  varieties 
attain  the  height  of  five  or  six  feet,  or  even  more,  with 
broad,  long  leaves,  which  look  fresh  and  beautiful  in  our 
hot  and  dusty  weather.  A  fine  bed  of  well-grown  Can- 
nas is  very  pleasant  to  the  eye,  and  even  a  single  plant  is 
very  attractive. 

The  Canna  can  be  grown  from  seed  the  first  year,  but 
to  get  fine,  large  plants  the  first  season,  it  is  necessary  to 
sow  the  seed  in  a  hot-bed  or  in  a  box  in  the  house  in 
March,  and  transplant  into  larger  boxes,  as  soon  as  they 
begin  to  crowd  ;  if  the  plants  do  well,  they  will  soon 
need  transplanting  a  second  time,  and  by  far  the  better 
way  is,  to  pot  them  and  place  the  pots  in  a  hot-bed,  not 


CALLIKEHOE. — CATCHFLY.  161 

forgetting  to  plunge  them  well  into  the  soil.  Cannas 
will  stand  considerable  heat,  but  ventilation  and  watering 
must  not  neglected. 

The  soil  selected  for  Cannas  in  the  garden  should  be 
made  very  fine  and  mellow,  with  a  large  quantity  of  leaf- 
mould,  or  manure,  thoroughly  worked  into  it.  -  If  the 
plants  are  doing  well  in  the  hot-bed  do  not  be  in  a  hurry 
to  remove  them.  Set  out  the  plants  from  eighteen  inches 
to  two  feet  apart,  each  way.  They  should  have  plenty  of 
room,  and  the  ground  be  kepb  carefully  hoed  and  free 
from  weeds,  and  it  will  be  well  to  mulch  the  surface 
with  litter,  or  the  clippings  of  the  lawn.  In  autumn 
take  up  the  roots,  and  pack  them  away  in  dry  sand  for 
the  winter.  Set  them  out  again  in  the  spring  and  they 
will  produce  very  fine  plants. 

CALLIRRHOE. 

The  cultivation  of  the  annual  Callirrhoe  (O.  pedata)  is 
similar  to  that  of  Drummond's  Phlox  ;  it  may  be  sown  in 
the  open  ground  where  it  is  intended  to  remain,  or  the 
plants  may  be  started  in  the  house  and  set  out  fifteen 
inches  apart.  A  large  bed  of  them,  if  the  soil  is  rich 
and  the  plants  vigorous  and  healthy,  is  very  showy.  The 
plants  commence  to  bloom  early  and  continue  to  produce 
their  purple  flowers  until  cut  down  by  frost. 


CATCHFLY. 

The  cultivation  of  the  Catchfly  is  very  similar  to  that 
recommended  for  Candytuft.  It  is  a  hardy  plant,  grow- 
ing about  a  foot  high,  a  free  bloomer  ;  a  well-grown  bed 
of  it  is  very  attractive.  The  plants  require  rich  land  and 
clean  culture. 


162  GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

COCKSCOMB— CELOSIA. 

The  Celosia,  or  Cockscomb,  is  a  very  interesting  and 
attractive,  though  not  particularly  beautiful  plant.  The 
flower-stem,  instead  of  growing  erect,  assumes  the  form 
of  a  cock's  comb,  and  in  the  hands  of  skillful  gardeners, 
with  the  aid  of  high  manuring,  this  fasciated  compound 
flower-stem  attains  an  enormous  size.  One  was  exhib- 
ited in  London  eighteen  inches  in  breadth.  To  attain 
any  thing  like  this  size,  the  plants  should  be  started  early 
and  set  out  in  the  richest  of  soil.  The  plants  may  be 
grown  as  recommended  for  Asters;  except  that  when  set 
out  in  the  garden,  they  should  be  allowed  more  room  to 
spread  themselves.  If  the  object  is  to  grow  as  large  flow- 
ers as  possible,  the  more  room  you  give  the  plants  the 
better.  Ordinarily  the  plants  may  be  set  out  from  two 
and  one  half  to  three  feet  apart. 

CONVOLVULUS,  OR  MORNING  GLORY. 

We  have  two  kinds  of  Morning  Glory;  one  is  a  climb- 
ing plant,  growing  with  great  rapidity,  and  throwing  out 
a  constant  succession  of  flowers.  The  other  is  a  dwarf 


Fig.  39. — DWARF  CONVOLVULUS,  FLOWER  AND  PLANT. 

plant.  If  we  'were  speaking  of  beans,  we  should  call 
one  the  pole  kind,  and  the  other  the  bush  kind.  The 
botanist  has  called  one  Ipomcea  purpurea,  and  the  other 
Convolvulus  tricolor.  The  first  named  is  a  very  rapid- 


DIANTHUS.  163 

growing  climber,  and  can  often  be  advantageously  used 
to  hide  some  unsightly  spot  or  building.  The  trellis, 
poles,  or  strings,  should  be  provided  as  soon  as  the  plants 
commence  to  run,  so  that  they  may  cling  to  them  from 
the  start.  The  soil  can  hardly  be  made  too  rich.  If 
the  soil  is  rich  enough,  and  the  surface  of  the  land  for 
several  feet  around  is  kept  free  from  weeds,  you  may  have 
three  or  four  plants  to  each  foot  of  trellis.  During  the 
heat  of  the  day,  the  flowers  are  closed,  but  early  in  the 
morning  they  are  out  in  full  bloom,  and  are  seen  in  all 
their  glory. 

Convolvulus  tricolor,  is  a  dwarf  or  bush  Convolvulus ; 
a  bed  of  it,  when  well  grown,  is  very  showy  and  attrac- 
tive. It  is  a  good  plan  to  plant  the  seed  in  hills  fifteen 
inches  apart,  putting  four  seeds  in  each  hill.  It  is  gen- 
erally recommended  to  plant  them  much  farther  apart, 
but  I  like  to  see  the  bed  fully  occupied. 

DIANTHUS. 

The  genus  DiantJius  includes  several  of  our  most  pop- 
ular flowers,  such  as  the  Sweet  William,  the  Carnation, 
the  Picotee,  and  the  common  garden  Pink.  The  kinds 
most  easily  grown  from  seed,  and  which  are  at  the  same 
time  desirable  in  every  garden,  are  the  DiantJius  Chinensis, 
and  DiantJius  Heddewigii,  or  Japanese  Pinks;  both  can  be 
easily  grown  from  seed;  but  if  not  sown  until  May  or 
June,  in  the  open  ground,  the  plants  will  give  but  few 
flowers  the  first  summer.  Indeed,  it  is  better  in  this  case 
not  to  let  them  flower  at  all,  but  to  aim  to  grow  strong 
plants  for  flowering  the  second  season.  They  will  stand 
the  winter  well,  especially  if  protected  with  branches  of 
evergreens  or  a  light  covering  of  horse  litter. 

For  flowering  the  first  summer,  the  plants  should  be 
grown  in  the  hot-bed  or  in  a  box  in  the  house.  Sow  the 
seed  as  recommended  for  Asters,  and  when  the  plants  are 


164  GARDENING   FOE  YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

strong  and  the  weather  warm,  transplant  them  into  a 
very  rich,  well-prepared  border,  from  ten  to  fifteen  inches 
apart.  If  you  have  dwarf  varieties,  they  may  be  set 
seven  or  eight  inches  apart,  or  nearly  wide  enough  apart 
to  admit  the  use  of  a  narrow  hoe.  I  mention  this,  be- 
cause it  is  exceedingly  important  to  keep  the  soil  well 
stirred  and  entirely  free  from  weeds.  The  plants  will 
flower  all  summer,  and  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  have 
the  soil  very  rich,  or  this  profuse  production  of  flowers 
will  weaken  the  young  plants.  If  the  plants  do  not  grow 
vigorously,  pinch  off  the  flower-buds,  and  water  the  bed 
with  water  containing  an  ounce,  or  about  a  tablespoonf  ul 
of  superphosphate  to  a  gallon,  applying  a  gallon  of  this 
solution  to  a  dozen  plants.  The  dose  may  be  repeat- 
ed in  two  weeks;  more  than  this  will  not  be  necessary, 
though  another  dose  will  do  no  harm. 

DELPHINIUM,  OK  LARKSPUR 

The  Rocket  Larkspur  is  a  well-known  and  popular  flow- 
er, easily  grown  from  seed.  But  as  it  is  not  transplant- 
ed very  readily,  and  has  to  be  sown  in  the  open  ground, 
where  the  plants  are  to  remain,  it  does  not  make  as  large 
a  growth  as  it  would  if  it  could  bo  started  in  a  hot-bed. 
Sow  the  seed  in  a  well-prepared  border  as  early  in  the 
spring  as  the  ground  can  be  got  into  good  condition.  Sow 
in  rows  a  foot  apart,  and  thin  out  the  plants  to  four  or  five 
inches  apart  in  the  row.  Keep  the  ground  clean,  and 
water  with  a  little  superphosphate  water,  as  directed  for 
the  Pinks.  Or  what  will  perhaps  be  just  as  well  in 
this  case,  sow  from  one  to  two  ounces,  or  one  to  two 
tablespoonfuls,  of  superphosphate  to  each  square  yard  of 
bed  at  the  time  of  sowing  the  seed,  or  at  any  time  after- 
wards, when  there  is  a  prospect  of  a  good  soaking  rain. 

The  Branching  Larkspur  requires  more  room  than  the 
Rocket  Larkspur,  and  the  plants  should  be  set  from 


DIGITALIS,    OR   FOXGLOVE. — DOLICHOS,    ETC.        165 

twelve  to  fifteen  inches  apart.  All  the  Larkspurs  require 
a  deep,  rich,  moist  soil.  They  do  better  on  the  north 
side  of  a  slope,  where  they  are  shaded,  rather  than  in  the 
full  blaze  of  our  hot  sun. 


DIGITALIS,  OK  FOXGLOVE. 

The  Digitalis,  or  Foxglove,  is  not  an  annual,  but  is 
easily  grown  from  seed,  and  deserves  to  be  more  generally 
cultivated  than  it  now  is.  The  plant  throws  up  several 
flower-stems,  two  or  three  feet  in  height,  each  stem  be- 
ing covered  at  its  upper  portion  with  a  dozen  or  more 
large,  well-shaped  flowers. 

The  seeds  may  be  sown  in  a  hot-bed,  or  in  a  box  in 
the  house,  or  in  the  open  ground,  but  in  the  latter  case 
no  flowers  will  be  obtained  the  first  year,  or,  if  the  plants 
throw  \ip  any  flower-stalks  they  should  be  cut  off;  the 
next  year  the  plants  will  be  strong,  and  produce  a  great 
profusion  of  flowers.  In  the  following  autumn,  or  spring, 
the  roots  of  the  plant  may  be  divided,  and  in  this  way 
you  will  soon  have  all  the  Foxgloves  you  require.  The 
plants  may  be  set  out  the  first  year,  from  twelve  to  fif- 
teen inches  apart,  but  the  second  year  they  will  be  thick 
enough  if  they  stand  two  to  three  feet  apart. 


DOLICHOS,  OR  HYACINTH-BEAN. 

The  cultivation  of  this  beautiful  climber  is  similar  to 
that  recommended  for  the  Lima-bean.  The  plant  grows 
even  taller  than  the  Scarlet  Runner,  but  it  is  not  so  hardy; 
it  delights  in  our  hot  sun,  and  should  be  planted  in  the 
warmest  and  driest  soil.  Like  all  rapid-growing  plants, 
it  requires  an  abundance  of  food,  and  the  soil  cannot  be 
too  liberally  manured. 


166  GARDENING   FOE   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

GILIA  TRICOLOR  AND  OTHERS. 

The  children  will  all  like  the  Gilias,  if  for  no  other 
reason  than  because  they  come  so  soon  into  flower.  The 
seed  may  he  sown  in  a  box  in  the  house,  by  the  middle  of 
March,  and  the  plants  transplanted  as  soon  as  the  weather 
will  permit;  they  do  not  bear  transplanting  readily,  ex- 
cept when  young.  Sometimes  a  few  of  the  plants  will 
flower  in  the  box  before  you  are  ready  to  set  them  out. 

Perhaps  the  better  way  is,  to  sow  the  seeds  in  rings 
in  the  garden.  If  you  take  a  common  two-tined  fork 
you  can  make  a  circle,  in  the  circumference  of  which  sow 
the  Gilia  seeds,  dropping  them  from  an  inch  and  a  half 
to  two  inches  apart,  in  the  mark  made  by  the  fork.  If 
you  use  a  three-tined  fork  you  can  make  two  rings.  Sow 
the  seed  in  both  rings,  two  or  three  inches  apart. 

HELIANTHUS,  OR  SUNFLOWER. 

My  young  friends  must  not  fail  to  sow  a  few  Sunflower 
seeds.  They  come  up  so  soon,  and  grow  so  rapidly,  that 
the  plants  become  objects  of  interest  from  the  start.  Sow 
three  or  four  seeds  in  a  hill,  as  you  would  corn,  say  three 
feet  apart,  and  thin  out  to  two  plants  in  a  hill.  Or  plant 
a  hill  in  any  vacant  spot  or  corner.  You  may  plant  a 
row  along  the  fence,  being  careful,  however,  to  leave 
space  enough  between  the  Sunflowers  and  the  fence  to 
admit  of  the  use  of  the  cultivator,  or  the  hoe;  thin  out 
the  plants  to  a  foot  apart.  The  Sunflower  delights  in  a 
rich  soil  and  an  abundance  of  sunshine.  It  is  a  coarse 
plant,  but  is  not  without  its  attractions.  The  single 
varieties  are  more  vigorous  and,  of  course,  produce  much 
more  seed  than  the  double  sorts.  The  seed  is  much  rel- 
ished by  poultry.  It  is  usually  sown  about  the  time  we 
plant  corn,  but  it  may  be  put  in  at  any  time  in  the  spring, 
as  it  is  not  injured  by  frost.  See  Sunflower,  Double. 


KAULFUSSIA. — LUPINES. — MALOPE.  167 

KAULFUSSIA. 

An  attractive  little  plant,  coming  very  early  into  flower, 
but  not  lasting  long.  It  is  hardy.  Sow  a  few  circles  of 
them,  as  recommended  for  Gilia. 

LUPINES. 

The  Lupines  are  a  well-known  and  very  hardy  genus 
of  plants,  belonging  to  the  Pea  family.  Some  of  the 
species  are  grown  as  food  for  stock,  and  also  for  plowing 
under  to  enrich  the  land.  I  suppose  it  is  called  Lupine, 
or  Wolf,  because  of  its  power  to  live  on  poor,  hungry 
soils.  Some  of  the  Lupines  are  not  a  foot  in  height, 
while  others  grow  on  rich  soil,  from  five  to  six  feet  high. 
There  is  a  great  variety  of  colors.  The  Lupine  has  a  long 
tap-root,  and  gets  its  food  from  the  sub-soil.  It  does  not 
transplant  easily,  and  should  be  sown  where  it  is  intended 
to  remain.  The  Dwarf  varieties  can  be  sown  in  rings, 
like  Gilias;  the  larger  sorts  should  be  sown  in  rows,  fif- 
teen inches  to  two  feet  apart,  dropping  three  or  four  seeds 
in  each  hill,  and  thin  out  to  single  plants,  after  they  are 
fairly  established. 

MALOPE. 

The  Malope  grandiflora  has  a  very  large,  showy  flower; 
the  plant  is  hardy,  and  vigorous,  growing  about  three 
feet  high.  The  seed  may  be  sown  in  a  box  in  the  house, 
and  the  plants  set  out  as  soon  as  the  weather  is  suitable, 
in  the  open  ground,  fifteen  inches  to  two  feet  apart. 
The  seed  can  be  sown  in  the  open  ground,  and  make 
equally  good  plants,  but  not  so  early. 


168  GARDENING   FOB  YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

MIGNONETTE. 

The  children  should  get  half  a  dozen  packets  of  Mig- 
nonette seed  with  which  to  experiment.  Let  them  sow  a 
little  seed  when  they  like,  where  they  like,  and  how 
they  like.  Wherever  there  is  a  little  soil,  two  or  three 
inches  in  depth,  they  can  grow  Mignonette.  It  will  not 
grow  in  the  oven  or  on  top  of  the  stove,  because  it  is  too 
hot;  it  will  not  grow  in  a  dark  cellar,  because  it  requires 
light;  it  will  not  grow  in  the  refrigerator,  because  it  is 
too  cold;  it  will  not  grow  in  the  ash-pit,  because  it  is  too 
dry.  But  wherever  there  is  a  little  fine, 
mellow  soil,  and  it  can  be  kept  moist, 
in  a  moderately  warm  place,  with  more 
or  less  sunshine,  especially  more,  there 
you  can  grow  Mignonette.  It  does  not 
matter  whether  the  soil  is 
in  a  beautiful  flowerpot, 
or  in  an  old  tin  can  with  a 
hole  in  the  bottom.  But  of 
course  while  Mignonette 
will  grow  under  adverse  con- 
Fig.  40.— MIGNONETTE.  ditioiis,  it  is  better  to  have 
everything  connected  with  flowers  neat  and  orderly;  the 
more  simple,  the  better.  A  good  plan  is,  to  fill  a  box,  a  foot 
wide,  three  inches  deep,  and  just  long  enough  to  go  upon 
a  window-sill,  fasten  it  with  wire  at  the  southern  or  east- 
ern window,  in  the  kitchen,  or  in  some  room  where  it 
never  freezes.  Fill  the  box  with  fine  mould,  or  the  finest 
and  lightest  soil  you  can  get;  water  the  soil  with  warm 
water,  and  sow  the  Mignonette  seed,  in  rows  two  inches 
apart,  and  two  or  three  seeds  to  each  inch,  sift  on  a  little 
fine  soil  or  pulverized  moss,  just  sufficient  to  cover  the 
seed.  Nothing  more  will  be  necessary  until  the  plants 
begin  to  grow.  It  will  then  be  necessary  to  water  the 


MIGKOtfETTE.  169 

plants  occasionally,  with  warm  water;  the  hotter  the  room 
and  the  brighter  the  sun,  the  more  rapidly  the  plants 
grow,  and  the  oftener  will  they  need  to  be  watered.  Be- 
fore the  plants  begin  to  crowd  each  other,  pinch  a  few 
of  them  off,  so  as  to  give  those  left  room  to  grow. 

In  the  open  ground  the  bed  for  Mignonette  should  be 
prepared  in  the  autumn;  it  should  be  carefully  spaded, 
and  well  manured,  and  worked  over  with  a  hoe  and  rake, 
until  it  is  quite  fine  and  mellow.  In  the  spring  sow  the 
seed  on  this  bed,  as  soon  as  the  soil  is  dry  and  the  weather 
is  warm.  Unless  the  soil  is  a  very  light  and  sandy  one, 
you  must  be  careful  not  to  work  it  when  it  is  wet.  But 
so  soon  as  the  soil  is  dry,  hoe  it  three  or  four  inches  deep, 
and  rake  it  very  fine,  taking  off  all  the  stones  and  rub- 
bish, or  dig  a  hole  in  the  beJ,  and  with  a  rake  pull  the 
stones  and  rubbish  into  the  hole,  and  cover  them  up 
with  fine  soil.  Mark  the  bed  both  ways,  with  a  marker 
nine  or  ten  inches  wide,  and  drop  three  or  four  seeds 
where  the  lines  cross  each  other,  cover  them,  and  if  the 
soil  is  dry,  pat  it  with  the  back  of  the  spade.  The  seed 
is  small,  and  must  not  be  covered  more  than  a  quarter  of 
an  inch  deep;  if  the  ground  is  moist  enough,  the  less 
covering  the  better.  A  tablespoonf  ul  of  superphosphate 
to  each  square  yard  of  bed,  scattered  broadcast  on  the 
surface,  either  before  the  seed  is  sown  or  afterwards,  will 
be  very  beneficial. 

As  soon  as  the  plants  appear,  hoe  lightly  between  the 
rows,  and  all  around  the  plants;  this  will  leave  very  lit- 
tle weeding  to  be  done.  I  recommend  sowing  three  or 
four  or  more  seeds  in  a  hill,  because  the  plants  will  come 
up  better,  and  because  we  do  not  want  any  gaps.  We  do 
not  need,  however,  more  than  one  good  plant  in  a  place, 
and  these  should  be  far  enough  apart  to  admit  the  use  of 
a  hoe.  If  preferred,  the  seed  can  be  sown  in  drills  from 
eight  to  twelve  inches  apart,  dropping  two  or  three  seeds 
to  each  inch  of  row,  afterwards  thinning  out  the  plants 
8 


170  GARDENING   FOR  YOUNG   AND  OLD. 

to  two  or  three  inches  apart.     But  the  other  plan  will 
give  finer  plants  and  there  is  less  af  terwork. 

Another  bed  should  be  sown  a  week  or  two  later;  and 
if  the  early  sown  bed  is  on  warm,  dry  soil,  facing  the 
south,  and  the  other  bed  on  deep,  rich  soil,  sloping  to 
the  north,  or  the  north-west  or  north-east,  you  will  have 
a  longer  succession  of  Mignonette  in  full  flower  and  fra- 
grance. The  more  flowers  you  gather,  the  more  you  will 
have.  If  you  do  not  cut  the  flowers,  they  will  go  to  seed 
and  this  weakens  the  plant;  but  the  better  way  is  to  sow 
large  beds  at  different  times.  Mignonette  can  be  trans- 
planted, but  the  work  has  to  be  done  skillfully,  and  it  is 
better  to  sow  the  seed  where  the  plants  are  intended  to 
remain.  A  bed  of  Mignonette  should  be  sown  in  the  au- 
tumn; this  will  give  early  flowers  next  spring.  You  can 
not  have  too  many  beds  of  Mignonette,  nor  can  they  be 
too  large. 


MIMOSA,  OK  SENSITIVE  PLANT. 

The  species  known  as  Mimosa  pudica,  or  Sensitive 
Plant,  is  exceedingly  interesting ;  it  is  very  pretty,  but 
its  chief  charm,  especially  to  the  children,  lies  in  the 
fact  that  when  you  touch  it,  all  the  leaves  instantly  curl 
up,  and  the  branch  falls  down.  ( 

The  seed  should  be  sown  early  in  the  spring  in  the  hot- 
bed or  in  a  box  in  the  house.  When  the  plants  begin  to 
crowd,  if  the  soil  outside  is  not  thoroughly  warm,  prick 
them  out  into  a  larger  box,  or  into  pots,  and  about  the 
middle  of  June,  set  them  out  carefully  in  a  well-prepared 
border.  It  is  well  to  leave  a  few  plants  in  four  or  five- 
inch  pots.  Plunge  the  pots  in  the  soil  so  that  the  rims 
shall  be  even  with  the  surface,  next  autumn,  and  before 
frost,  remove  these  pots  to  the  house.  The  plants  will 
be  interesting  objects  all  winter. 


•  -,*-, 

MYOSOTIS.  — MIRABILIS. — THE  PANSY.  171 

MYOSOTIS,  OE  FORGET-ME-NOT. 

The  Forget-me-not  requires  a  deep,  rich,  moist  and 
mellow  soil.  It  is  best  to  start  the  plants  in  a  hot-bed, 
or  box  in  the  house,  though  the  seed  may  be  sown  in  the 
open  ground.  The  plants  do  better  on  a  northern  slope, 
or  in  a  moist  and  somewhat  shady  place.  The  plant  is 
perennial. 

MIRABILIS,  OR  MARVEL  OF  PERU. 

Make  the  ground  very  rich  and  mellow,  sow  the  seeds 
in  a  row  where  you  can  hoe  on  each  side  of  it,  at  least  a 
foot  in  width.  Drop  a  seed  in  each  two  or  three  inches 
of  row,  and  cover  by  patting  the  soil  with  the  back  of  the 
hoe.  The  plants  should  be  thinned  out  to  a  foot  apart. 
The  plants  are  about  two  feet  high,  and  if  they  have 
plenty  of  room,  will  throw  out  numerous  branches.  The 
flowers  are  large  and  fragrant,  and  quite  showy. 

THE  PANSY. 

The  Pansy,  or  Heart's-ease,  is  not  only  one  of  the  most 
popular,  but  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  flowers.  The 
improvement  which  has  been  made  in  the  size  and  colors 
of  .the  flowers  is  most  marvellous.  How  this  has  been 
effected  it  is  not  necessary  to  inquire.  We  know  this, 
however,  that  the  plants,  or  rather  the  flowers,  will  rapidly, 
degenerate  and  decrease  in  size  and  brilliancy,  when 
grown  on  poor  soil,  and  their  cultivation  neglected. 

If  you  would  have  the  best  of  Pansies  you  must  not 
only  get  seed  from  the  best  sources,  but  careful  atten- 
tion must  be  given  to  every  condition  of  growth. 

It  is  a  very  easy  matter  to  grow  really  good  Pansies. 
Pansy  seed,  sown  last  spring  in  a  box  in  the  house,  the 
last  of  March,  gave  us  strong  plants,  which,  on  June  25th, 


172 


GABDENLKTG   FOB  YOUNG   AND   OLD? 


were  flowering  out  of  doors.  Our  season  last  year  was 
from  two  to  three  weeks  later  than  usual.  I  mention 
this  to  show  that  the  children  can,  and  do  very  readily, 
raise  good  Pansies  without  much  weary  waiting.  And 
the  beauty  of  it  is,  that  these  Pansies  will  continue  to 
produce  more  and  more  flowers  during  the  whole  summer. 
The  plants  I  speak  of  were  transplanted  two  or  three 
times,  before  the  soil  in  the  garden  was  warm  enough  to 

set  them  out.  Early 
sowing,  and  frequent 
transplanting,  so  as  to 
produce  strong,  stocky 
plants,  is  a  great  advan- 
tage. The  Pansies  are 
supposed  to  require  a 
great  deal  of  water. 
Perhaps  so,  perhaps 
not.  At  any  rate,  one  of 
the  most  common  mis- 
takes, when  raising 


Fig.   41. — THE  PANSY. 


plants  in  the  hot-bed,  or  in  the  boxes  in  the  house,  is  to 
give  them  too  much  water.  What  the  plants  really  need  is, 
the  richest  of  rich  soils.  If  you  want  to  make  good 
coffee,  you  must  put  a  good  deal  of  coffee  in  the  pot, 
and  very  little  water.  You  would  not  get  much  coffee, 
but  what  you  do  get  will  be  good.  For  my  part,  I  would 
rather  have  half  a  cup  of  good  coffee  than  two  cups  of 
poor.  And  I  fancy  that  Pansies,  to  produce  the  largest 


THE   Pi^SY.  173 


flowers,  require  the  richest  of  plant  food.  In  other  words, 
you  must  not  put  too  much  water  in  their  coffee.  The 
sap  of  the  soil  on  which  they  live,  should  be  as  rich  and  as 
concentrated  as  you  can  make  it.  Such  a  soil  would  ap- 
pear to  be  very  moist,  while  in  point  of  fact  it  may  hold 
comparatively  little  water.  It  will  simply  hold  more 
water  during  dry  weather  than  a  soil  that  has  not  been 
so  heavily  manured.  The  probabilities  are,  that  this 
effect  is  produced  by  the  formation  of  nitrates,  by  the 
oxidation  of  the  nitrogenous  matter  in  the  heavily  man- 
ured soil. 

If  this  is  the  true  explanatu  n,  what  we  want  to  pro- 
duce the  largest  and  best  pansies  is,  first,  a  soil  thoroughly 
underdrained,  at  least  three  feet  deep  ;  secondly,  a  soil 
that  is  carefully  spaded  two  feet  deep  and  a  good  wheel- 
barrowful  of  manure  to  each  square  yard  of  ground, 
thoroughly  worked  into  the  soil,  a  foot  or  fifteen  inches 
deep.  Then  work  into  the  surface  soil  all  the  rich,  well- 
rotted  manure,  say  from  an  old  hot-bed,  you  can  make  it 
hold.  Few  people  know  how  much  manure  they  can 
work  into  the  soil  until  they  set  about  the  work  in 
earnest.  Mark  you,  the  manure  must  be  well  incor- 
porated with  the  soil  with  a  potato  hook  or  hoe,  as  you 
would  a  heap  of  mortar  ;  work  it  and  keep  working  it 
until  there  is  not  a  lump  of  soil,  or  manure  left  bigger 
than  a  grain  of  mustard  seed. 

On  such  a  soil  sow  the  seed,  or  set  out  the  plants  as 
soon  as  the  weather  is  warm  and  settled  in  the  spring, 
but  it  is  best  not  to  be  in  too  great  a  hurry.  The  plants 
may  be  set  out  in  rows  nine  inches  apart  each  way.  Or 
if  preferred,  plant  in  rows  fifteen  inches  apart,  leaving 
one  plant  every  five  or  six  inches  in  the  row.  If  seed  is 
sown  in  such  a  bed  as  I  have  described,  I  would  sow  in 
rows  a  foot  apart,  and  drop  the  seeds  one  to  two  inches 
in  the  row.  The  drill  mark  should  not  be  over  half  an 
inch  deep.  Cover  the  seed  by  patting  the  surface  of  the 


174  GAKDENING   FOE   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

bed  with  the  back  of  the  spade  or  hoe.  The  varieties  of 
Pansy  are  very  numerous.  I  think  my  young  friends  will 
do  well,  at  first,  to  sow  only  the  choicest  and  best  seed  of 
mixed  varieties.  They  may  obtain  plants  of  some  of  the 
newer  varieties  from  the  professional  florists. 

SWEET-PEAS. 

The  Sweet-pea,  one  of  the  most  fragrant  and  beautiful 
of  flowers,  is  grown  precisely  like  other  peas;  it  is  exceed- 
ingly hardy,  and  grows  well  in  a  great  variety  of  soils. 
To  have  Sweet  Peas  in  perfection,  however,  three  things 
are  essential;  rich  land,  early  sowing,  and  the  cleanest 
and  best  of  culture.  Perhaps  it  may  be  well  to  say  in 
addition,  that  the  plants  should  have  plenty  of  room  be- 
tween the  rows,  say  not  less  than  three  feet,  and  at  the 
same  time  it  is  desirable  to  sow  the  peas  quite  thickly  in 
the  row.  "When  thus  sown,  the  peas  come  up  earlier  and 
better,  and  check  the  growth  of  the  small  weeds  in  the 
row;  if  you  have  only  one  row,  be  sure  to  have  plenty  of 
room  on  each  side  of  the  row  for  the  use  of  the  hoe  or 
cultivator.  I  have  seen  Sweet-peas  sown  along  a  fence, 
but  never  knew  them  to  do  really  well,  because  the  plants 
were  so  close  to  the  fence  that  they  could  not  be  hoed  on 
both  sides  of  the  row.  The  peas  must  be  provided  with 
sticks  or  strings,  or  a  trellis  to  cling  to.  I  said  "must 
be,"  because  this  is  the  neatest  and  best  way,  and  not 
because  the  supports  are  absolutely  necessary.  In  rais- 
ing Sweet-peas  in  large  quantities  for  seed,  we  do  not 
stick  them,  but  sow  them  in  rows  two  and  a  half  feet 
apart,  precisely  as  we  do  common  peas  when  growing 
them  for  market.  If  the  ground  is  very  rich  and  clean, 
and  the  soil  well  cultivated  between  the  rows,  you  will 
have  a  finer  growth  and  a  mass  of  the  sweetest  and  most 
beautiful  flowers. 

The  land  for  Sweet-peas  should  be  dug  and  heavily 


PETUKIA. 


175 


manured  the  previous  autumn,  and  the  moment  the  frost 
is  out  of  the  ground  in  the  spring,  sow  the  peas,  putting 
at  least  two  seeds  to  each  inch  of  row.  An  ordinary 
sized  packet,  as  sent  out  by  the  seedsmen,  would  be 
about  sufficient  for  a  couple  of  circles  some  nine  inches 
in  diameter,  and  if  this  is  all  you  intend  to  sow,  perhaps 
sowing  them  in  a  circle  is  as  good  a  plan  as  any;  place  a 
stick  about  three  feet  high,  with  a  few  branches  on  it,  in 
the  center  of  the  circle  for  the  peas  to  climb  upon. 

PETUNIA. 

The  Petunia  has  been  greatly  improved  during  the  last 
few  years,  and  is  now  one  of  our  most  popular  flowers. 

It  is  easily  grown,  and  every 
garden  should  have  a  large 
bed  of  it.  If  a  few  plants 
only  are  grown,  to  be  set  out 
singly,  it  is  desirable  to  have 
the  finest  double  varieties; 
but  when  massed  together  in 
a  large  bed,  the  small-flow- 
ered kinds,  with  more  or  less 
double  ones  amongst  them, 
are  exceedingly  showy  and 
pleasing.  A  good  plan  is,  to 
prepare  the  bed  the  au- 
tumn previous,  by  spading 
and  manuring  ;  in  the 
spring,  as  soon  as  the  soil 
is  dry  and  warm,  hoe  and 
rake  the  beds;  mark  off 

Fig.  43.— PETUNIA.  -  „   . 

into     rows    a     foot     apart 

and  drop  four  or  five  seeds  where  the  lines  cross.  The 
seeds  are  exceedingly  small,  and  you  must  be  careful  not 
to  cover  them  too  deep;  if  patted  down  with  the  back  of 


176  GARDENING   FOE   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

the  spade,  that  will  be  sufficient  covering.  When  the 
plants  appear,  hoe  carefully  between  the  rows  and  as 
close  to  the  plants  as  you  can,  pulling  out  any  weeds  that 
may  be  left.  As  the  plants  grow,  thin  them  out,  and 
ultimately  leave  only  one  good  plant  in  a  place. 

DRUMMOND'S   PHLOX. 

Of  all  annual  flowers,  Phlox  Drummondii  is  my  fa- 
vorite. Although  it  is  a  native  of  Texas,  it  is  admirably 
adapted  to  our  climate,  and  every  garden  should  have  a 
large  bed  of  it — the  larger  the  better.  It  can  be  grown 
as  easily  as  onions  or  carrots,  in  fact  with  less  labor,  as 
the  plants  are  farther  apart  and  nearly  all  the  weeds  can 
be  removed  with  the  hoe.  On  my  farm  I  grow  this  Phlox 
in  the  field,  sowing  it  with  a  garden  drill,  in  rows  twenty- 
one  inches  apart,  precisely  as  turnips  are  sown.  I  mention 
this  to  show  how  easily  this  plant  can  be  grown.  It  requires 
rich,  clean,  dry  land;  a  sandy  loam  is  better  than  either 
a  very  light  sandy  soil  or  one  that  approximates  to  a  clay. 
For  Phlox,  as  for  many  other  garden  crops,  the  true  plan 
is  to  prepare  the  land  in  the  autumn,  making  it  as  rich, 
deep,  clean,  and  mellow  as  possible.  The  more  manure 
you  work  into  it,  the  larger  and  more  brilliant  will  be 
the  flowers,  and  this  is  especially  the  case  if  we  have  a 
dry,  hot  summer. 

The  seed  should  be  sown  as  early  as  possible  in  the 
spring.  As  I  said  before,  you  ought  to  have  a  large  bed 
of  it.  Single  plants  set  out  in  beds  with  other  flowers, 
are  very  pretty,  but  to  bring  out  the  real  beauty  and  ef- 
fectiveness of  the  Phlox,  you  should  see  it  in  large 
masses.  If  the  bed  has  been  well  prepared  in  the  au- 
tumn, as  soon  as  it  is  dry  and  in  good  working  condition 
in  the  spring,  hoe  the  whole  surface  of  the  bed  three  or 
four  inches  deep,  and  work  it  with  a  potato-hook  and 
steel  rake  until  not  a  lump  remains;  then  mark  the  bed 


DRUMMOND'S  PHLOX. 


177 


into  rows  twelve  or  fifteen  inches  apart,  and  sow  the  seed 
in  the  rows,  putting  one  seed  to  each  two  inches  of  row. 
This  is  one  way;  another,  and  I  think  a  better  plan,  is, 
to  mark  the  bed  both  ways  in  rows  twelve  or  fifteen 
inches  apart,  and  drop  three  or  four  seeds  in  each  place 


Fig.   43. — GROUP  OF  THE  NEWER  VARIETIES    OF   DRUMMOND'S  PHLOX. 


where  the  lines  cross,  covering  not  more  than  a  quarter  of 
an  inch  deep.  If  the  soil  is  dry,  pat  it  down  with  the 
back  of  the  spade  or  hoe.  In  this  case  you  do  not  need 
to  put  any  soil  on  top  of  the  seeds— the  patting  will  cover 
them  deep  enough. 

Only  one  plant  is  needed  in  a  place.     I  recommend 
sowing  three  or  four  seeds,  because  they  will  come  up 


178  GAKDEKI^G   FOB   YOUKG  AKD   OLD. 

better  and  quicker,  and  you  are  better  able  to  see  the 
plants,  and  hoe  around  them,  before  the  weeds  begin  to 
be  troublesome.  Hoe  frequently,  and  suffer  not  a  weed 
to  grow,  and  when  the  plants  are  fairly  established,  take 
out  all  but  one  in  a  place.  Nothing  more  will  be  required, 
except  to  keep  the  bed  entirely  free  from  weeds. 

Drummond's  Phlox  is  so  easily  grown  in  this  way  that 
I  hardly  like  to  suggest  any  other  method  of  cultivation, 
and  before  doing  so,  I  should  like  to  exact  a  promise  from 
all  my  young  friends,  that  they  will  sow  a  large  bed  in 
the  way  just  mentioned,  whether  they  do  or  do  not  adopt 
the  plan  I  am  now  about  to  describe.  The  truth  is,  no 
one  ever  raised  half  enough  of  Drummond's  Phlox,  and 
the  following  plan  will  give  you  a  fine  lot  of  early  plants, 
which  you  can  raise  to  excellent  purpose,  while  the  bed 
grown  from  seed  sown  out  of  doors,  will  give  you  a  glori- 
ous display  of  beautiful  flowers,  from  the  middle  of  July 
until  cut  down  by  frost. 

This  Phlox  can  be  transplanted  as  easily  as  a  cabbage, 
and  nothing  is  easier  than  to  raise  a  fine  lot  of  plants  in 
the  house  or  hot-bed. 

About  the  middle  of  March  sow  a  box  of  Phlox  seed 
in  rows,  one  inch  apart,  dropping  two  or  three  seeds  to 
each  inch  of  row;  cover  the  seed  about  a  quarter  of  an 
inch  deep  with  sifted  dry  moss,  or  less  than  half  that  depth 
with  sifted  sand,  or  mould.  Before  sowing  the  seed,  the 
mould  in  the  box  should  be  thoroughly  watered  with 
blood-warm  water.  Until  the  plants  appear,  all  that  will 
be  necessary  to  do  is,  to  sprinkle  on  a  little  warm  water 
to  keep  the  surface  moist;  when  the  plants  appear,  especi- 
ally if  the  room  is  warm,  and  the  weather  bright  and 
sunny,  they  will  require  a  little  water  every  day.  Be 
careful  not  to  give  too  much  water.  Before  the  plants 
begin  to  crowd  each  other,  transplant  them  into  a  larger 
box,  or  boxes,  in  rows  two  inches  apart,  and  the  plants 
an  inch  apart  in  the  row.  The  soil  should  be  thoroughly 


DBUMMOI^D'S  PHLOX.  179 

watered  with,  warm  water  before  setting  out  the  plants. 
The  box  from  which  the  plants  are  removed  should  also 
be  saturated  with  warm  water.  Do  not  try  to  thin  out 
the  plants,  but  take  them  all  up  out  of  the  box,  as  in 
this  way  comparatively  few  roots  will  be  broken  off.  Of 
course  the  box  from  which  the  plants  are  taken  can  also 
be  filled  with  transplanted  Phlox  plants. 

After  the  plants  are  pricked  out  sift  a  little  pulverized 
moss  on  the  soil,  say  an  eighth  of  an  inch  deep;  this  will 
check  evaporation,  and  in  a  day  or  two  the  plants  will  be 
growing  as  vigorously  as  ever. 

The  great  point  after  this  is,  to  give  the  plants  as 
much  sunshine  as  possible.  If  kept  in  the  shade  they 
will  be  apt  to  grow  up  tall  and  spindling;  what  we 
want  is  large,  stocky  plants,  hence  they  must  have 
plenty  of  room.  It  may  be  necessary  to  transplant 
them  once  more  into  larger  boxes,  or  you  may  remove 
every  other  row  of  plants,  and  set  them  out  into  a  warm 
border,  leaving  the  others  to  grow  a  little  larger  in  the 
box  in  the  house.  It  is  necessary,  in  any  case,  to  harden 
the  plants  before  setting  them  out  in  the  garden;  this 
can  be  done  by  putting  the  boxes  out  of  doors  on  a  bench, 
on  the  south  side  of  the  house.  At  first,  they  should 
not  be  allowed  to  remain  outside  for  more  than  an  hour  or 
so,  during  the  heat  of  the  day,  gradually  extending  the 
time  as  the  plants  become  stronger  and  more  stocky. 

These  plants  can  be  set  out  either  in  a  large  bed,  in 
rows  twelve  to  fifteen  inches  apart  each  way,  or  they  may 
be  set  out  singly  amongst  other  flowers,  wherever  there 
is  room  for  them. 

The  handsomest  bed  of  Drummond's  Phlox  I  ever 
saw,  was  on  a  wide  outside  border  of  a  large  cold 
grapery,  sloping  towards  the  south-west;  the  border  had 
been  prepared  with  the  greatest  care,  and  enriched  for 
three  or  four  feet  deep  with  horn-piths  and  rich  manure. 
From  this  it  is  evident  that  the  Phlox,  and  more  especi- 


180  GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

ally  the  choicest  varieties,  will  stand  high  manuring;  true, 
you  can  grow  it  on  any  ordinary  garden  soil,  but  it  will 
repay  all  the  labor  bestowed  in  enriching  and  mellowing 
the  land.  The  mistake  most  people  make,  is  in  planting 
too  thick.  On  good  land,  twelve  to  fifteen  inches  apart 
each  way  is  close  enough. 

The  varieties  are  so  numerous  that  it  is  hard  to  say 
which  are  the  best.  For  my  part,  I  want  one  pure 
white  and  one  brilliant  scarlet.  For  anything  more 
than  this  I  should  be  willing  to  trust  to  good  seed  of 
mixed  varieties,  from  some  trustworthy  seed-grower. 

THE  POPPY. 

The  old-fashioned  Poppy,  extensively  grown  for  the 
production  of  opium,  is  a  hardy,  vigorous-growing  an- 
nual, with  a  white,  single  flower.  We  have,  however,  a 
number  of  beautiful  varieties,  with  double  flowers  of  all 
shades  of  color.  We  have  also  dwarf  and  tall  varieties. 

The  Poppy  is  not  transplanted  readily,  and  it  must 
be  sown  in  the  garden  where  it  is  intended  to  remain. 
Select  the  warmest  and  driest  soil,  make  it  fine  and  mel- 
low, and  sow  the  seed  as  early  in  the  spring  as  the 
weather  will  permit,  or  about  the  time  you  plant  corn. 

The  large  Pseony-fiowered  Poppy  has  double  flowers  of 
great  size  and  beauty.  Thin  out  the  plants  to  at  least 
a  foot  apart.  The  small  double  Eanunculus-flowered 
varieties  may  be  sown  in  rows  about  a  foot  apart,  and 
thinned  out  to  seven  inches  apart  in  the  row. 

If  you  wish  to  experiment  in  growing  flowers  for  opium, 
sow  in  rows  not  less  than  fifteen  inches  apart,  and  thin 
out  the  plants  to  a  sufficient  distance  to  admit  of  the  use 
of  the  hoe.  For  this  purpose,  the  best  variety  is  the 
single  Papaver  somniferum,  or  Opium  Poppy.  The  time 
may  come  when  the  Poppy  will  be  very  extensively  grown 
here  for  opium. 


PORTULACA. 

POETULACA. 


181 


The  Portulaca  is  own  brother  to  the  Purslane  or 
"Pussley,"  one  of  the  worst  weeds  we  have  on  light 
sandy,  garden  soils.  Both  are  hardy,  both  thrive  best 
in  sandy  soils,  but  here  the  comparison  ends.  The 
Purslane  is  a  miserable  weed,  the  Portulaca  a  beautiful 
flower.  I  have  heard  it  said 
that  it  is  just  as  easy  to  raise  a 
good  thing  as  a  bad  one.  Not 
so.  The  Portulaca  must  be 
cultivated  with  care,  and  the 
better  the  variety,  the  richer 
must  be  the  soil.  The  double 
varieties  of  Portulaca  should  be 
Fig.  44.-PORTULACA-SINGLE  ^  b  in  the  house  about 

FLOWER. 

the  middle   of  March,  in  rows 

one  inch  apart  and  two  or  three  seeds  to  each  inch  of 
row.  When  the  plants  begin  to 
crowd  each  other,  take  out  every 
other  row  and  set  them  out  m  an- 
other box.  They  are  transplanted 
readily,  and  it  is  an  easy  matter  to 
get  good  strong  plants  to  set  out  in 
the  garden  as  soon  as  the  weather 
will  permit. 

It  is  of  course  not  necessary  to 
start  the  plants  in  the  house,  the 
seeds  may  be  sown  in  the  open 
ground.  Select  the  warmest  and 
lightest  soil,  make  it  as  good  as 
possible.  Rake  it  smooth  and  pat 
it  down  firm  with  the  back  of  the 
spade,  then  make  shallow  drills  a  foot 
apart  and  sow  the  seeds  about  an 
inch  apart  in  the  drill ;  cover  not  more  than  a  quarter 


Fig.  45.—  PORTULACA— 

PLANT  AND  DOUBLE 
FLOWER. 


182  GARDENING   FOR   YOUNG  AND   OLD. 

of  an  inch  deep.  If  you  pat  the  rows  with  the  back  of 
the  spade,  this  will  cover  the  seed  deep  enough.  If 
the  weather  is  dry  it  will  be  well  to  water  the  bed 
occasionally  until  the  plants  are  fairly  started.  Hoe 
lightly  between  the  rows  and  suffer  not  a  weed  to 
grow.  This  is  very  important,  especially  when  the 
plants  are  young.  Thin  out  the  plants  in  the  row 
to  three  or  four  inches  apart;  those  that  are  removed 
may  be  used  to  fill  vacancies,  or  to  make  another  bed. 

The  plants  started  in  the  house  can  be  set  out  in  rows 
a  foot  apart  each  way,  and  if  the  soil  is  rich  enough,  they 
will  soon  cover  the  whole  bed.  The  great  point  in 
growing  Portulaca  is  to  get  the  plants  fairly  started  ; 
when  the  roots  get  firm  hold  of  the  soil,  the  hottest  sun 
will  not  hurt  them. 

KICINTJS— CASTOK-OIL  BEAN. 

The  Ricinus,  or  Castor  Oil-Bean,  is  extensively  grown 
in  some  parts  of  this  country  for  making  castor  oil.  The 
plants  grow  with  wonderful  vigor,  often  attaining  the 
height  of  ten  feet.  The  leaves  are  large  and  beautiful, 
and  the  flowers  of  many  of  the  varieties  are  brilliant  and 
attractive.  The  cultivation  is  as  simple  as  that  of  the 
Sun-flower  or  Indian  Corn.  Set  out  a  plant  in  the  centre 
of  a  bed.  The  Castor  Oil-bean  can  also  be  used  to  great 
advantage  as  an  ornamental  screen. 

SALPIGLOSSIS. 

The  Salpiglossis  delights  in  a  warm,  sandy  soil.  The 
plants  may  be  started  in  the  house  and  set  out  in  rows,  a 
foot  apart  and  five  or  six  inches  from  one  another  in  the 
row.  The  plants  make  a  fine  edging ;  for  this  purpose, 
make  a  drill  around  the  bed  nine  inches  from  the  margin, 
sow  the  seeds  about  an  inch  apart,  cover  lightly,  hoe 


STOCKS — TEK  WEEKS.  183 

carefully,  and  thin  out  the  plants  to  three  or  four  inches 
apart.  The  dwarf  variety  is  best  for  this  purpose.  It 
grows  about  a  foot  high,  while  the  ordinary  varieties  are 
about  two  feet  high.  The  flowers  of  both  are  large  and 
showy,  and  are  well  worthy  a  place  in  every  garden. 

STOCKS— TEN  WEEKS. 


Those  who  have  had  no  experience  in  starting  flower 
seeds  in  a  box  in  the  house,  would  find  Ten  Weeks  Stock 
a  good  plant  to  experiment  with.  Sow  the  seeds  in 
rows  an  inch  apart,  and  two  or  three  seeds  to  an  inch  of 
row.  Cover  with  a  little  pulverized  moss,  a  quarter  of 
an  inch  deep,  or  with  one-eighth  of  an  inch  of  sand,  or 
mould.  Give  the  soil  in  the  box  a  thorough  watering 
with  warm  water  before  sowing  the  seed;  until  the  plants 
appear  nothing  more  is  required,  except  to  sprinkle  on 
enough  water  every  day  to  keep  the  surface  moist. 

The  plants  of  Stock  can  be  transplanted  as  easily  as 
cabbage  plants,  and  as  it  is  always  very  important  to  get 
strong,  compact  plants,  you  can  not  transplant  them  too 
often.  As  soon  as  the  plants  are  an  inch  high,  take  out 
every  other  row,  and  prick  them  out  into  another  box, 
and  as  soon  as  those  that  are  left  in  the  first  box  begin  to 
crowd,  if  the  weather  is  not  warm  enough  to  set  them 
out  of  doors,  transplant  into  another  box  in  the  house. 
If  the  seed  is  sown  the  middle 'of  March,  you  will  have 
strong,  stocky  plants,  three  inches  high,  by  the  middle 
of  May.  The  boxes  should  then  be  placed  out  of  doors 
in  the  sun  for  a  few  hours  every  day,  to  harden  the 
plants. 

Ten  Weeks  stocks  are  so  hardy  and  vigorous  that  they 
will  do  well  on  any  good  garden  soil.  Set  them  out  just 
as  you  would  a  cabbage  plant.  Put  them  in  the  ground 
just  deep  enough  for  the  lower  leaves  to  reach  the  surface 


184  GARDENING   FOB   YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

of  the  soil.     Set  them  a  foot  apart,  hoe  frequently,  and 
keep  the  bed  entirely  free  from  weeds. 

The  Ten  Weeks  Stock  delights  in  a  moist  soil  and  plenty 
of  rain.  But  as  we  can  not  always  be  sure  of  having 
plenty  of  moisture,  we  should  make  the  soil  as  rich  a£ 
possible.  This  is  particularly  important  if  we  expect  to 
raise  double  flowers.  I  do  not  mean  by  this,  that  if  we 
expect  to  grow  seed  that  will  produce  double  flowers,  we 
should  make  the  land  rich.  In  point  of  fact,  the  seed 
that  will  produce  double  flowers  is  from  plants  that  have 
been  starved  or  dwarfed,  the  plants  being  grown  with  as 
little  food  and  water  as  possible,  and  the  seed  taken  from 
the  lower  half  of  the  pod,  the  secondary  branches  of 
the  plant  only  being  allowed  to  bear  seed.  What  I 
mean  is,  that  when  you  have  seeds  grown  for  the  special 
purpose  of  producing  plants  that  will  bear  double  flowers, 
you  can  not  make  the  soil  too  rich  for  them. 


SUNFLOWER— DOUBLE. 

Every  one  knows  the  tall-growing,  large-flowered, 
single  Sunflower.  (See  page  166.)  Its  appearance  is  gen- 
erally associated  with  unhinged  gates,  windows  stuffed 
with  old  hats,  and  other  marks  of  poverty.  Nevertheless, 
even  the  common  Sunflower  may  be  so  grouped  as  to 
present  a  striking  appearance,  and  there  is  a  dwarf  double 
one  that  is  not  out  of  place  in  any  garden.  This  has  been 
in  cultivation  for  many  years,  but  no  one  seems  to  know 
how  it  originated.  It  has  been  called  the  "  Many-flow- 
ered," the  "California  Double,"  the  "Hollow  Globe," 
and  by  other  names.  It  produces  small,  nearly  globular 
flowers,  of  a  regular  shape,  and  of  a  bright  golden  yel- 
low color;  they  are  without  the  coarseness  of  the  single 
sunflower,  and  quite  as  handsome  as  a  Dahlia.  This 
variety  is  an  annual. 


VEKBEHA.  185 

VERBENA. 

It  is  not  at  all  difficult  to  raise  good  Verbena  plants 
from  seed.  Sow  the  seeds  in  a  box  in  the  house,  the 
first  or  second  week  in  March.  The  soil  can  not  be  too 
rich,  and  it  is  very  desirable  to  mix  with  it  about  one- 
quarter  its  bulk  of  dried  and  sifted  moss.  Before  sowing 
the  seeds,  water  the  soil  in  the  box  with  warm,  or  hot 
water,  the  hotter  the  better,  provided  you  do  not  sow  the 
seeds  until  two  or  three  hours  after  applying  the  water. 
Sow  in  rows  an  inch  apart,  placing  the  seeds  about  half 
an  inch  apart  on  the  top  of  moist  soil,  cover  by  scattering 


Fig.  46.— DOUBLE  ANNUAL  SUNFLOWER. 

on  dry,  sifted  moss,  a  quarter  of  an  inch  deep.  Keep 
the  box  in  a  warm  room.  Very  little  water  will  be'  re- 
quired. More  plants  are  lost  by  excessive  watering  than 
from  all  other  causes  combined.  As  soon  as  the  plants 


186  GARDENING   FOR  YOUNG   AND   OLD. 

appear,  place  them  in  a  sunny  window;  they  grow 
slowly  at  first,  and  will  require  very  little  water — the 
warmer  the  room,  and  the  brighter  the  sun,  the  more  wa- 
ter will  they  need.  When  the  plants  are  well  out  of  the 
seed  leaf,  or  at  any  rate  before  they  begin  to  crowd,  or  to 
run  up  too  tall,  transplant  them  into  a  larger  box,  placing 
them  at  least  an  inch  apart.  The  plants  should  not  be 
set  out  in  the  garden  until  the  weather  is  quite  warm, 
and  all  danger  of  frost  is  past.  If  they  should  get  too 
large  in  the  boxes,  it  is  a  good  plan  to  set  them  out  in 
two-inch  flower  pots.  Plunge  the  pots  in  a  box  of  moist 
earth,  or  of  moss,  and  after  they  have  got  over  the  check 
from  transplanting,  place  them  in  a  sunny  window. 
Water  moderately,  and  always  with  warm  water,  say 
aboufc  as  warm  as  new  milk.  For  a  week  before  setting 
out  in  the  open  ground,  the  plants  should  be  gradually 
hardened  by  placing  the  boxes  on  the  south  side  of  a 
building  for  an  hour  or  two,  during  the  middle  of  the  day, 
and  gradually  extending  the  time  until  they  can  be  left 
out  all  night  with  safety. 

The  bed  for  Verbenas  should  be  a  light,  dry,  warm  soil, 
thoroughly  enriched,  and  quite  mellow;  water  the  plants 
thoroughly  with  warm  water  before  removing  them  from 
the  boxes,  or  pots;  disturb  the  roots  as  little  as  possible, 
and  set  them  about  fifteen  inches  apart,  and  just  deep 
enough  to  bring  the  lower  leaves  level  with  the  surface. 
Press  the  soil  firmly  around  the  roots,  and  if  need  be, 
shade  the  plants  for  a  few  hours  during  the  heat  of  the 
day,  until  the  plants  recover  from  the  effects  of  trans- 
planting. Keep  the  bed  well  hoed,  and  free  from  weeds, 
and  it  will  be  a  source  of  great  interest  and  pleasure. 
You  never  know  just  what  you  will  get,  and  it  is  inter- 
esting to  watch  the  plants  as  they  come  into  flower.  You 
will  be  sure  to  have  a  great  variety  of  all  shades  of  color, 
and  if  the  seeds  are  good,  you  will  be  certain  of  an  ample 
reward  for  all  your  labor. 


187 

ZINNIA. 

The  Zinnia  is  destined  to  be  a  very  popular  flower.  The 
plant  is  large  and  vigorous.  The  flowers  are  large,  pro- 
fuse, and  brilliant.  They  have  been  wonderfully  im- 
proved during  the  last  few  years,  and  the  improvement  is 
certain  to  continue  year  after  year. 

The  plants  can  be  grown  in  a  box  in  the  house,  as  they 
transplant  with  perfect  safety;  the  oftener  they  are  trans- 
planted the  better,  as  it  gives  us  more  and  larger  flowers 
in  proportion  to  the  size  of  the  plant.  Set  out  the  plants 
fifteen  inches  to  two  feet  apart. 

If  preferred,  the  seeds  can  be  sown  out  of  doors,  where 
they  are  intended  to  remain.  But  a  better  plan  is,  to 
sow  a  row  of  them,  dropping  the  seeds  about  an  inch 
apart  in  the  row;  cover  about  an  eighth  of  an  inch  deep, 
and  when  the  plants  are  well  out  of  the  seed  leaf,  set 
them  out  in  any  part  of  the  garden,  where  you  have 
room  for  a  strong,  vigorous-growing  plant,  two  feet  high 
and  two  or  three  feet  across.  If  the  seed  is  good,  the 
first  flowers  may  not  be  so  large  or  so  double  as  those 
produced  by  the  same  plant  later  in  the  season. 


INDEX. 


Abronia 1 51 

Ageratum 151 

Agrostemma..   151 

Alyssum,  Sweet 150 

Anise 148 

Asparagus 31 

Asperula 151 

Asters,  China 152 

Dwarf  Bouquet 154 

Chrysanthemum-flowered 154 

New  Rose 151 

Pseony  -flowered T54 

Balsam 155 

Bartonia 157 

Basil 149 

Bean,  Castor-Oil 182 

Bean-Hyacinth...   165 

Bean?,  Bush 36 

Pole 33 

Black  Wax 36 

Butter 36 

Early  Valentine 36 

Golden  Wax 37 

Lima 33 

London  Horticultural 35 

Speckled  Cranberry 35 

Scarlet  Runner 36 

Wax 36 

WhiteKidney 37 

Beets 37 

Bassano 37-40 

Dewing's  Blood  Turnip 40 

Early  Blood  Turnip '.   38 

Egyptian  Blood  Turnip 37 

Long  Smooth  Red 38 

Borage 146 

Boxes,  Window 22 

Brachycome 158 

Cabbages 42 

Early 43 

Early  York 44 

Plat  Dutch 45 

Fottler's  Drumhead 44 

Harris1  Short-stem  Drumhead.  45 
Henderson's  Summer 44 


Cabbages— Jersey  Wakefleld 44 

Late  ...        45 

Marblehead  Mammoth 45 

Premium  Flat  Dutch 45 

Savoy 47 

Second  Early 44 

Stone -Mason 45 

Winningstadt. 44 

Calendula 160 

Calliopsis 160 

Callirrho^ 161 

Candytuft 158 

Carmiida 159 

Puie  White .   159 

Sweet-scented  White Io9 

Canna 160 

Capsicum 97 

Caraway 148 

Carrots 49 

Early  Short  Horn         52 

Half  Long  52 

Long  Orange 52 

White  Belgian 52 

Castor-Oil  Bean 182 

Catchfly 161 

Cauliflower 47 

Early  Paris 48 

Erfurt  Earliest  Dwarf 48 

Lenormand 48 

Walcheren -. 48 

Celeriac 60 

Celery 52 

Boston  Market 60 

Dwarf  Crimson 60 

Dwarf  White 60 

Setting  out  the  Plants 55 

Sowing  the  Seed 53 

Storing  for  Winter. 58 

Turnip-rooted 60 

Celosia 162 

ChinaAsters 152 

Cockscomb 162 

Cold  Frames 26 

Competition  in  Crops 17 

Convolvulus 162 


(188) 


I^DEX. 


189 


Convolvulus,  Tricolor 162 

Coreopsis 160 

Coriander 146 

Corn,  Pop 64 

Corn  Salad 65 

Corn,  Sweet 61 

Crosby's  Sugar 63 

Moore's  Early  Concord 63 

Russell's  Prolific 63 

Stowell's  Evergreen 63 

Cress— Peppergrass 66 

Water 66 

Crops,  Competition  in 17 

Cucumbers 69 

Early  Frame 69 

Green  Cluster  69 

Improved  Long  Green 69 

Russian 69 

White  Spine 69 

Daisy,  Swan  River 158 

Delphinium 164 

Dianthus •   .163 

Chinensis 163 

Heddewigii 163 

Digitalis 165 

Dill 149 

Doiichos * 165 

Drummond's  Phlox 176 

Egg  Plant 70 

Endive 71 

Fennel.. 147 

Flowers.  Cultivation  of 150 

Forget-Me-Not 171 

Foxglove 165 

Garden,  an  Old  and  a  New 8 

Gardening  for  Boys 9 

Gardening,  How  to  Begin 10 

Gilia  tricolor 166 

Golden  Bartonia 157 

Green  Manures 12 

Gumbo 79 

Heart's-ease 171 

Helianthus 166 

High  Farming 15 

Hot-bed,  to  make  a 25 

Hyacinth  Bean 165 

Impli  meats 21 

Acme  Harrow 21 

Gang-Plow 21 

Harrow,  Acme  21 

Harrow,  Revolving 21 

Harrow,  Smoothing 21 

Indian  Cress 78 


Indian  Shot 166 

Inbects 26 

Army-worm 29 

Cabbage-worm 27 

Currant-worm  . .   29 

Paris  Green  fcr 28 

Potato-bug 29 

Squash-bug 30 

Striped-bug 27 

White  Hellebore  for 28 

Ipomoaa  purpurea 152 

Japan  Pink 163 

Kaulf  ussia 167 

Kohl  Rabi 71 

• '  Lady's  Slipper," 155 

Lamb's  Lettuce 65 

Larkspur 164 

Branching    154 

Rocket 164 

Lavender 147 

Leaf  Mould 22 

Lettuce 73 

Cos 72 

The  Deacon 72 

London  Purple 29 

Lupine 167 

Malope 169 

Mangel  Wurzel 40 

Carter's  Yellow  Globe 41 

Harris'  Yellow  Globe 41 

Lcng  Red 41 

Button's  Yellow  Globe 41 

Yellow  Globe 41 

Manures 19 

How  to  Treat 11 

Green 12 

Marigold  Pot 160 

Marjoram,  Sweet 145 

Marvel  of  Peru 171 

Melon,  Musk 73 

Cassaba 74 

Early  Christiana 74 

Green  Citron 74 

Japanese 74 

Nutmeg 74 

Melon,  Water 75 

Black  Spanigh 77 

Citron 77 

Ice  Cream 77 

Mountain  Sweet 77 

Mignonette 168 

Mimosa no 

Mirabilis 171 


190 


ISTDEX. 


Morning  Glory 162 

Dwarf 163 

Tall 162 

Moss  for  Seeds 22 

Muck,  Dried 23 

Mustard 77 

Myosotis 171 

Nasturtium  78 

Okra 79 

Onions 80 

Early  Red  Globe 83 

Large  Red  Wethersfi eld 83 

White  Globe 83 

Yellow  Danvers 83 

Onion,  Potato 88 

Seed 87 

Sets 86 

Top 89 

Tree 89 

Oyster  Plant. 107 

Pansy 171 

Paris  Green,  To  Use    28 

Parsley £9 

Parsnip 90 

Hollow  Crown. 91 

Long  White  Dutch 91 

Seed 92 

Peas 92 

Buggy 97 

Dwarf 96 

Dwarf,  American  Wonder 96 

Dwarf,  Little  Gem 96 

Dwarf,  Tom  Thumb 96 

Champion  "of  England . .  95 

Extra  Early  Kent 95 

Kentish  Invicta 95 

Sweet 174 

White  Marrowfat 95 

Pepper 97 

Bell 97 

BullNose 97 

Pepper-Grass 66 

Petunia 175 

Phlox,  Drummond's 176 

Pinks,  Japan 163 

Poisons — London  Purple 27 

for  Insects 27 

The  Care  of 30 

Pop  Corn 64 

Poppy 180 

Opium 180 

Pseony-flowered . .  180 

Ranunculus-flowered 180 


Potatoes 98 

Beauty  of  Hebron 98 

Early  Rose 98 

Early  Vermont 98 

Portulaca 181 

Pot  Marigold 160 

Pumpkins 99 

Connecticut  Field 100 

Large  Cheese 100 

New  Jersey  Sweet 100 

Possum-Nose 100 

Purslane 181 

"  Pussley," 181 

Quack-Grass,  To  Kill 13 

Radishes— Summer 100 

French  Breakfast 102 

Rose,  Olive-shaped 102 

Scarlet  Turnip 102 

White  Turnip. 102 

Radishes— Winter 104 

Black  Spanish 105 

California  Mammoth  White.. .  105 

Chinese  Rose-colored  , 105 

Chinese  White 105 

Radish  Seed 102 

Rhubarb 105 

Gaboon's  Seedling 107 

Linnaeus 107 

Victoria 107 

Ricinus 182 

Rosemary 146 

Rue 148 

Sage 141 

Salpiglossis 182 

Salsify 107 

Savory,  Summer 144 

Winter 144 

Scallions 83 

SeaKale    109 

Sensitive  Plant.. 170 

Soil  for  Seed  Boxes 22 

Soil,  Preparation  of 12 

Spinach.  110 

Prickly-seeded Ill 

Round-seeded Ill 

Squash— Summer 112 

Early  Bush  Crookneck 113 

Early  Bush  Scollop  113 

Squash— Winter 113 

Hubbard 114 

Marblehead 114 

Seed 115 

Starting  Plants 22 


INDEX. 


191 


Stocks,  Ten  Weeks' 183 

Summer  Savory 144 

Sunflower 166-184 

California  Double 184 

Double 184 

Hollow  Globe 184 

Many-flowered 184 

Single 166 

Swan  River  Daisy 158 

Sweet  Alyssum 150 

Sweet  Corn 61 

Sweet  Herbs...    141 

Sweet  Marjoram 145 

Sweet  Peas 174 

Sweet  Potatoes 116 

Nansemond 117 

Ten  Weeks'  Stocks 183 

Thyme 143 

Broad-leaved 144 

Evergreen 144 

Hardy  Winter 144 

Tomatoes 117 

Acme 123 

General  Grant 123 


Tomatoes,  Hathaway's  Excelsior..  123 

Hubbard's  Curled-leaf 123 

Trophy 123 

Raising  Seed 123 

Tropseolum  73 

Turnips 124 

Autumn 125-139 

Early  Winter 126-138 

Purple  Top  Strap-leaf 139 

Eata  Baga 126 

Swedes 126 

Swedes,  Gathering 134 

Yellow  Aberdeen 126-138 

Turnip-rooted  Celery 60 

Vegetable  Oyster 107 

Verbena 185 

Watermelons 75 

Weeds— Quack-Grass 13 

To  Kill 13 

White  Hellebore,  To  Use 28 

Window  Boxes  22 

Wormwood 148 

Zinnia...  ...187 


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